Grace Nyahangare
Hatikanganwe Asi Tinopora
First Floor Gallery Harare (Harare)
Hatikanganwe Asi Tinopora
First Floor Gallery Harare (Harare)
In English, we say that some experiences are etched into our memory. The idea of etching is an interesting one in this context. It speaks to focusing precisely on a particular facet, experience in way that is highly contrasted, emotionally so. This is the kind of connection and an experience of a memory that Grace Nyahangare wants us to share in Hatikanganwe Asi Tinopora, here debut solo. Built on personal experience of pain and growth, the exhibition, does not revel in self-indulgence of spoon-fed suffering. It is rather an almost cinematically addressed landscape of memories and reflections on experiences which left an indelible mark in Nyahangare’s life.
While only twenty-six, it is hard to say that Nyahangare has not lived a Life. For most young people the early twenties are a time of, experimentation, travel and self-discovery. Nyahangare entered these years as an aspiring artist, a budding musician eager to prove herself. But her journey took a dark turn when she was forced to get a job as a waitress in UAE, following a failed promise of work at an art fair. The job proved to be a form of enslavement, where her passport was confiscated and held for ransom and she was forced to work 14-hour days with no breaks and subjected to racism and abuse. Devising a desperate plan of escape, she landed back in Zimbabwe, with a new determination to succeed as an artist, as a woman and as a young parent.
Art however not therapy for Nyahangare, but rather a catalyst for activism. The figures she etches on the canvases are triggers for her memories, emotions and motivation. Lest she forgets. Her healing, is through ensuring that her experiences do not need to repeat for her or to anyone else. The paintings are tips of icebergs for life lived but still too dense in meaning, too complex to fully unpack and at times too difficult to fathom. Painted over the course of nine months, with her baby daughter Luna, on her back or sleeping and crawling in the studio, these canvases are an act of defiance. She has not and will not let her youth and joy of being alive to be destroyed by trauma. Nyahangare’s ordeals are not obstacles, they are challenges in the truest sense of the word, invitations to battle at life and emerge victorious. Her paintings are something to which she brings her everything. Having started her practice as a printmaker, she rolls that skill into painting and practice, to underscore literally the edges of her recollections, made luminous by incorporation of printer’s ink into the paint, which makes the figures float on the canvas weightlessly but with great import and impact. Memories and emotions are like that. They also don’t have to subscribe to laws of physics of anatomy, they just have to matter. And in Nyahangare’s work they really really do matter, reaching for the core of our humanity – visceral and spiritual all at once. These are works by someone who is a warrior in the most honourable sense, someone who is fighting for her belief of a possibility for humankind to evolve towards kindness. In Hatikanganwe Asi Tinopora we are given an opportunity to join Nyahangare’s unflinching journey to elicit beauty and joy from scars to heal from pain towards a better self, and come to believe that we can.
Valerie Kabov
@2023
While only twenty-six, it is hard to say that Nyahangare has not lived a Life. For most young people the early twenties are a time of, experimentation, travel and self-discovery. Nyahangare entered these years as an aspiring artist, a budding musician eager to prove herself. But her journey took a dark turn when she was forced to get a job as a waitress in UAE, following a failed promise of work at an art fair. The job proved to be a form of enslavement, where her passport was confiscated and held for ransom and she was forced to work 14-hour days with no breaks and subjected to racism and abuse. Devising a desperate plan of escape, she landed back in Zimbabwe, with a new determination to succeed as an artist, as a woman and as a young parent.
Art however not therapy for Nyahangare, but rather a catalyst for activism. The figures she etches on the canvases are triggers for her memories, emotions and motivation. Lest she forgets. Her healing, is through ensuring that her experiences do not need to repeat for her or to anyone else. The paintings are tips of icebergs for life lived but still too dense in meaning, too complex to fully unpack and at times too difficult to fathom. Painted over the course of nine months, with her baby daughter Luna, on her back or sleeping and crawling in the studio, these canvases are an act of defiance. She has not and will not let her youth and joy of being alive to be destroyed by trauma. Nyahangare’s ordeals are not obstacles, they are challenges in the truest sense of the word, invitations to battle at life and emerge victorious. Her paintings are something to which she brings her everything. Having started her practice as a printmaker, she rolls that skill into painting and practice, to underscore literally the edges of her recollections, made luminous by incorporation of printer’s ink into the paint, which makes the figures float on the canvas weightlessly but with great import and impact. Memories and emotions are like that. They also don’t have to subscribe to laws of physics of anatomy, they just have to matter. And in Nyahangare’s work they really really do matter, reaching for the core of our humanity – visceral and spiritual all at once. These are works by someone who is a warrior in the most honourable sense, someone who is fighting for her belief of a possibility for humankind to evolve towards kindness. In Hatikanganwe Asi Tinopora we are given an opportunity to join Nyahangare’s unflinching journey to elicit beauty and joy from scars to heal from pain towards a better self, and come to believe that we can.
Valerie Kabov
@2023
Artist Statement
Forgive and forget is the norm, but what happens when you let your guard down and become vulnerable? They might decide to use your kindness against you and take you on a spin once more.
“Hatikanganwe asi tinopora” translated “we don’t forget but we heal”, is a selection of notes rather events I went through and later transitioned into a visual dialogue within myself. I use a colourful pallet telling untold stories that are not so comfortable but also very important to talk about. I am narrating my journey into motherhood, responsibilities and how I became vulnerable and subjected to validation in this male dominated industry and a gender biased community. Yet the outcome of creating this work became a beautiful learning curve, It also raised a form of awareness aimed towards elevating my confidence by creating a meaningful pattern in the paintings that balances the rhythm within the context of this work.
As a storyteller, this dialogue of brokenness and discomfort opened up room for an ongoing conversation within myself, asking specific questions about who I can trust in my vulnerability, how one becomes subjected to validation and still has to conform to traditional norms.
This body of work has been inspired by several women ranging from family, friends and various influential feminine figures who went through the most traumatic events but still created colourful outcomes. I am motivated to see women shaping the conversation and reviving meaningful legacies. I am healing a broken generation and remembering my journey so as my past to guide me.
“I don’t paint dreams, I paint my own reality.” - Frida Kahlo.
Grace Nyahangare
Forgive and forget is the norm, but what happens when you let your guard down and become vulnerable? They might decide to use your kindness against you and take you on a spin once more.
“Hatikanganwe asi tinopora” translated “we don’t forget but we heal”, is a selection of notes rather events I went through and later transitioned into a visual dialogue within myself. I use a colourful pallet telling untold stories that are not so comfortable but also very important to talk about. I am narrating my journey into motherhood, responsibilities and how I became vulnerable and subjected to validation in this male dominated industry and a gender biased community. Yet the outcome of creating this work became a beautiful learning curve, It also raised a form of awareness aimed towards elevating my confidence by creating a meaningful pattern in the paintings that balances the rhythm within the context of this work.
As a storyteller, this dialogue of brokenness and discomfort opened up room for an ongoing conversation within myself, asking specific questions about who I can trust in my vulnerability, how one becomes subjected to validation and still has to conform to traditional norms.
This body of work has been inspired by several women ranging from family, friends and various influential feminine figures who went through the most traumatic events but still created colourful outcomes. I am motivated to see women shaping the conversation and reviving meaningful legacies. I am healing a broken generation and remembering my journey so as my past to guide me.
“I don’t paint dreams, I paint my own reality.” - Frida Kahlo.
Grace Nyahangare
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