Interview

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Propos recueillis auprès de Georgina Maxim le 19 avril 2020 

 

Gina, you were in residencie in Johannesburg at Bag factory and you came back to Zimbabwe just before the total close down. Let us know how things are going in Harare ? Life keeps going ? Or is everything stopped ? 

I find myself being grateful each and everyday. Life for me continues, but differently from other days. I find myself thinking about those that have to survive from hand to mouth.

 

1 - You are one of the co founder of Village Unhu, one of the most important artists run space in Zimbabwe. How do you manage to keep the space or and the activity alive ? 

No, unfortunately not. For the safety of the artists who have to travel everyday to come to Village Unhu to work, we had to ask them to stay home. Most managed to get enough materials so that they may continue to work and we do our best to keep in touch and to make sure everyone is managaing well. 

 

2 - Where is your studio in Harare ? How do you manage to work ? 

My studio is at home. I found it easier to make works form home and manouvre around the space that also demands other duties from me as well. Yes, I still work at the same steady pace as before. 

 

3 - Do you think this global crisis is going to influence your work ? And connect your researches in a different way with our global issues ? 

I guess the idea of memory and healing will never fade off. The global crisis has created many points in time when people do stop and remember what life was before the crisis, and those are the memories that I will still draw from. Death during this crisis has been so real that ever before, lives have been lost in hundreds per day and this is tragic – such events can not be described so easily. Therefore I hope that my use of memory and healing may continue to be viewed positively as I continue to do my work. 

 

4 - Let’s talk more precisely about your work. 

If you had 5 words and only 5 words to describe it, wich ones? 

Lonely. Nostalgic. Handmade. Coloruful. Textured. (Reincarnated)

 

5 - Your media is the textile : You work with second hand clothes about thoses ideas of memory, textile memories, all these narratives carried and contains into it; your work go through all this personal stories, trying to preserve it, to create new narratives from them stitch by stitch. Your work is about how to build or understand a common memories through these old individual stories. 

How did you start to work with textile ? 

I needed to find my own language and statement and it is upon seeing the old clothes of my grandmother that the idea of keeping them longer but in a different state came to fruition, to keep them in mind and alive. It was a good feeling to see them and to remember how whe wore the clothes. 

 

When did you start to be concerned about the memory preserved in the textile ? 

The act of distributing of clothes after one passes shows the need to preserve the clothes more than the person. We all need to have good memories, and we need to survive on these memories, to rise above any of these mishaps that continue to crowd us. I just hope that when I make these works, that these works only portray good things. 

 

6 - You have a close relationship with fabrics you use. When you sew there is something really mechanical and maybe something almost instinctive. Your body is really engaged during the process of creation. There is something close by performance in the way you involve your body.

Can you tell us more about that ? 

At times the monotony takes over. It becomes the thread, needle and cloth that takes over the repetition of motion, sound and colour. I become unaware at times of what is happening and being demanded of the sewing process. There is no hypnosis but just a gentle unawareness of it all. And the unfortunate prick of the needle that is so sharp awake you up and painful returns you to find another colour, another cloth.

I have surely imagined the final work being used in part of a performance but not sur how. But if we are talking about the sewing process I have described above, it may becomes an alone but lonely time, a time of confidence and continued imagination. The process is extremely slow, the results take long just like the body takes long to recover from scars or to shape up in gym sessions, just like a pregnancy that takes its natural time to come to full term, just like the body taking years to show wrinkles and old age. This is about life with it’s upheaval and goodness.

 

7 - Sometimes you compare textile to flesh. What does it means ? 

I see the cloth and the person as one. Cloth, garments, dresses, shirts, ties and all those things are so close to the flesh to the extent that when one wears them they feel good. Something important and strong is transferred when one wears something of value to them. 

 

8 – Recently your work is shifting from really colorful composition to more monochromic pieces. Can you tell us more about this evolution ? 

It happens all the time after I have made a body of work , I start again with a monochromatic piece. I fail to see more colours after a body of work. It is more like a detox, if we can call it that. Or maybe a renewal of and a fresh start from a blank space.

 

9 – You were part of the zimbabwean pavilion in Venice. What does it means for you ?

It was absolutely scary to have the worlds eyes on me and my fellow participants. Remember the artists before us have created great conversations from their work and have taken the countries name further. I was not about to fail them. So I believe I did my best and created some works that I currently miss, but my works have been center of many discussions, critics, artistic interrogation; this I have heard.

 

10 - Thank you Gina, a last thing to say to our readers ?

There is not a person alive who looks in the mirror and sees some disformity. You are enough the way you are. 

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