Again Chokuwamba
Drowning in my Senses
First Floor Gallery Harare (Harare)
Drowning in my Senses
First Floor Gallery Harare (Harare)
Artist Statement
I found myself being alone on a window having a judgmental and spiritual conversation with the people I see outside. “Drowning in my Senses”, is a compilation of work derived from central Harare’s high-density suburbs living patterns. I come from a background where people like myself who identify as artists are looked down upon. As different stereotypes have emerged since time immemorial regarding artists, I take it to my canvas to express and highlight some of the societal challenges the community faces. I am inspired by social scenes from my community mostly human interactions, body languages, music and mirrors as that reflects on my work. I see the connection between human nature and the window or rather a reflective surface as very extraordinary, spiritual and poetic. Looking people through a window or a window frame, creates a different version of themselves in my head. I believe what people see in me when they look at me creates a thousand versions of myself in their minds. I play around with significant elements like flowers, bathtubs, lines of geometry, text and temporality as the key elements that closely represent human ecology to me. Subconsciously, I paint abstract with the human figure as the focal point in most of my paintings. My visual vocabulary, palette and tones are derived from my mood and inspired by what I witness in my neighborhood every day. I am entirely convinced that a community’s duty is to create and influence the value of day-to-day life. I have mounted up substantial amount of research which aided confidence that either supports or underpins the unity of human existence. I pay close attention and I am socially cognizant of my surroundings and the people I have interactions with because this gives narrative to the broader context of my work. Who knows, if the things we do every day are in in fact good for the community or ourselves, even as we think they are. We might be investing our precious time in things which don't mean anything based on a human interaction level. I am a very sensitive and emotional being, this body of work is part of a healing process from societal traumas and experiences. I found out that being alone sometimes it’s very peaceful and healthy for me. ‘From where I belong’, apparently, they could never understand me and what they don’t understand they seek to destroy. This also drove me to conclude that what we think affects how the human kind feel, what we feel also affects how we behave, how people behave influences how they feel. I am drowned deep in my senses asking myself “what is really my contribution to the world?”.
Again Chokuwamba
©2024
I found myself being alone on a window having a judgmental and spiritual conversation with the people I see outside. “Drowning in my Senses”, is a compilation of work derived from central Harare’s high-density suburbs living patterns. I come from a background where people like myself who identify as artists are looked down upon. As different stereotypes have emerged since time immemorial regarding artists, I take it to my canvas to express and highlight some of the societal challenges the community faces. I am inspired by social scenes from my community mostly human interactions, body languages, music and mirrors as that reflects on my work. I see the connection between human nature and the window or rather a reflective surface as very extraordinary, spiritual and poetic. Looking people through a window or a window frame, creates a different version of themselves in my head. I believe what people see in me when they look at me creates a thousand versions of myself in their minds. I play around with significant elements like flowers, bathtubs, lines of geometry, text and temporality as the key elements that closely represent human ecology to me. Subconsciously, I paint abstract with the human figure as the focal point in most of my paintings. My visual vocabulary, palette and tones are derived from my mood and inspired by what I witness in my neighborhood every day. I am entirely convinced that a community’s duty is to create and influence the value of day-to-day life. I have mounted up substantial amount of research which aided confidence that either supports or underpins the unity of human existence. I pay close attention and I am socially cognizant of my surroundings and the people I have interactions with because this gives narrative to the broader context of my work. Who knows, if the things we do every day are in in fact good for the community or ourselves, even as we think they are. We might be investing our precious time in things which don't mean anything based on a human interaction level. I am a very sensitive and emotional being, this body of work is part of a healing process from societal traumas and experiences. I found out that being alone sometimes it’s very peaceful and healthy for me. ‘From where I belong’, apparently, they could never understand me and what they don’t understand they seek to destroy. This also drove me to conclude that what we think affects how the human kind feel, what we feel also affects how we behave, how people behave influences how they feel. I am drowned deep in my senses asking myself “what is really my contribution to the world?”.
Again Chokuwamba
©2024
Drowning in my Senses
As audiences we often expect storytelling from artworks and artists and detach from the artist themselves as having a living embodied reality and presence. The work is the thing, the paintings breathe life and start their own conversations with us, leaving the artist behind. And yet. The life of the painting is one that was breathed into it by the artist, a soul shared, an inspiration bequeathed.
For Again Chokuwamba the urgency of his own life, its turbulent energy, its passion and colour cannot be left behind. It spills over into the canvas and then again on to us as audiences. His presence, personality, verve and vigour are not going to be overshadowed, they are part and parcel of everything we see. And of course.
Hard won, youth is not wasted on Chokuwamba and it is there for all to see, poignant, joyous, uncertain, reliving and reflecting on childhood, so close and already left behind, projecting grand and not yet visible futures, reveling in pleasures of the present.
Drowning In My Senses is all that in all honesty. And then. We also have the privilege of witnessing a young painter at the start of his creative journey. The past 18 months were a time of intense learning for Chokuwamba working with and learning from painters like Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Wycliffe Mundopa, Helen Teede, Amanda Mushate and Grace Nyahangare. In this family of practitioners of unique personal vision, Chokuwamba emerged equally committed to a singular direction. A direction rather than a signature style because the gestation period for a painter is a decade. Taking us on a journey, Chokuwamba share his vision, which is dreamlike and poignantly joyful, underpinned by memory of loss and pain, which makes for beauty. He asserts himself as a strong draftsman but someone who is also falling in love with what paint does and what it can do, who can play with fluidity and with texture and who is finding new expressive opportunities in partnership with his medium.
Drowning In My Sense is proposition from a young painter that he is here to stay, that he is in no rush to achieve because he is in this for the long haul that a journey in art is calling him to, and he is inviting us to come along.
Valerie Kabov
©2024
As audiences we often expect storytelling from artworks and artists and detach from the artist themselves as having a living embodied reality and presence. The work is the thing, the paintings breathe life and start their own conversations with us, leaving the artist behind. And yet. The life of the painting is one that was breathed into it by the artist, a soul shared, an inspiration bequeathed.
For Again Chokuwamba the urgency of his own life, its turbulent energy, its passion and colour cannot be left behind. It spills over into the canvas and then again on to us as audiences. His presence, personality, verve and vigour are not going to be overshadowed, they are part and parcel of everything we see. And of course.
Hard won, youth is not wasted on Chokuwamba and it is there for all to see, poignant, joyous, uncertain, reliving and reflecting on childhood, so close and already left behind, projecting grand and not yet visible futures, reveling in pleasures of the present.
Drowning In My Senses is all that in all honesty. And then. We also have the privilege of witnessing a young painter at the start of his creative journey. The past 18 months were a time of intense learning for Chokuwamba working with and learning from painters like Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Wycliffe Mundopa, Helen Teede, Amanda Mushate and Grace Nyahangare. In this family of practitioners of unique personal vision, Chokuwamba emerged equally committed to a singular direction. A direction rather than a signature style because the gestation period for a painter is a decade. Taking us on a journey, Chokuwamba share his vision, which is dreamlike and poignantly joyful, underpinned by memory of loss and pain, which makes for beauty. He asserts himself as a strong draftsman but someone who is also falling in love with what paint does and what it can do, who can play with fluidity and with texture and who is finding new expressive opportunities in partnership with his medium.
Drowning In My Sense is proposition from a young painter that he is here to stay, that he is in no rush to achieve because he is in this for the long haul that a journey in art is calling him to, and he is inviting us to come along.
Valerie Kabov
©2024
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