The emerging Zimbabwean artist explores his ancestral roots in his debut solo show
Option Dzikamai Nyahunzvi’s exhibition at Unit London - marking the artist's first solo presentation - introduces much more than just Nyahunzvi himself. Taking its title Kwatinobva Kunoyera (Sacred Origin) from a Shona saying, the show interrogates the concept of ancestral histories through “notions of space, place and identity,” with a viewpoint unique to the emerging Zimbabwean artist.
Sacred beings proliferate in his paintings, populating moody and otherworldly landscapes with symbols taken from both African and Christian iconography. Calling us to “reflect on ancestral histories and our spiritual existence,” the colourfully multifaceted show recognises co-existing dualities arising from the hinterland between the post-colonial realities of his country and its indigenous beliefs. This is even reflected in its hang with the paintings suspended so that both the front and back of canvases are revealed to the viewer – acknowledging the visible, and the hidden. Like much of Nyahunzvi’s work, this curation seems as organic as it is destined and highlights his natural curiosity for the unknowable.
The title affirms a “power and importance” in not only sharing the artist’s culture but using its vision to present alternative visions for the future. In a text accompanying the exhibition, penned by academic Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti, Zimbabwe’s Shona people are described as “spiritual beings that revere the land they walk on… all are believed to be endowed with consciousness and are therefore treated with respect.” Opening in the UK at the same time it hosted the international COP26 conference, the environmental concerns of the exhibition, reflecting a respect towards the natural world, coincidentally become ever more powerful and urgent.
“Sometimes you need to absorb and release so that you can create balance within yourself”
Main figures appear alongside haunting apparitions representing “the unseen spiritual presence of everyday people,” which are sometimes “distorted and recreated” from the artist’s friends and relatives, other times revealed by imagination and taking animalistic forms. A recurring motif is the zebra – both limbs and prints - a clear reference to the artist’s mutupo: “A totem, like a star sign, but a lot more spiritual,” he explains. The mutupo guides not only heritage and lineage but “temperament, attitude and personality”. In itself the zebra too seemingly underlines an acceptance of dualities, of differing absolutes - an animal embodying both black and white.
The Harare-born artist originally studied print design before moving into new mediums and has exhibited and taken up residencies both locally and globally. Understanding and enjoying Nyanhunzvi’s practice offers a sense of new beginnings or origins - a catharsis of sorts. The process of making the work, a technique of building up acrylic and paper collage and then peeling away and etching into the surface, is in itself a healing process for the artist too. “Life is full of ups and downs. Sometimes you need to absorb and release so that you can create balance within yourself,” he reflects
Ultimately the show’s takeaway is a search for balance of self within multiple cultures, ecosystems, religions, identities and realities. Through Nyanhunzvi’s beautifully disarming works, his acceptance and celebration of duality suggests how hybridised outlooks might forge more harmonious futures. As the artist explains, “every origin is sacred in its own way.”
Kwatinobva Kunoyera by Option Dzikamai Nyahunzvi is on view at The Unit London until 4 December 2021