“Living in the diaspora”
My exhibition “Living in the diaspora” is about my life after I left Zimbabwe. Already in Zimbabwe I experienced working abroad, other cultures and peoples. Being an ambassador for the culture and art of my country differences were emphasized between cultures. I was being represented as a Zimbabwean or African artist. This was true but slowly I realized that this was not what I wanted and meant with my work. My expression and subjects were not Zimbabwean but had to be taken the way they were.
In Europe I participated in discussions about globalization of art. My question was: “Was there a difference between art, artists, people or communication?” The background of this subject was unclear to me. To my understanding people were busy with differences. “Did this also count for art?” To me art stands for expression and communication and is a universal language to overcome differences.
I lived the last five years in Europe and my life developed. It developed in a way it also could have developed in Zimbabwe; husband, children, family, happiness, problems. In short: “life”. I had to overcome differences in communication, expression and ways to handle daily life problems. On top of this there were difficulties in my home country. This occupied me for a long time and the struggle with these differences in cultures and differences is reflected in my work of the last years. This has enriched my life and made me stronger.
To me, the experience of my life in Europe and getting to know this part of the world was a necessary and logic step in my development and is for me an integral part of my life.
Lots of people struggle with finding their place in another culture or in a changing world in general. To me this continuously boils down to communicating with the people around me and to be open to other ideas, feelings and ways of expression, without sticking to what was comfortable. This I try to do through my art.