'VABVAKURE' (PEOPLE FROM FAR AWAY)
By GERALD MACHONA, MFA candidate in the Fine Art Department and member of
the Visual and Performing Arts of Africa Focus Area research team.
Date: Wednesday 10th April
Time: 5:30 pm
Venue: The Guy Butler Theatre stage, 1820 Settlers National Monument
Opening speech by Prof Ruth Simbao
Drink and snacks will be available. Admission free.
Vabvakure, which means, 'people from far away', is a Shona word used to
describe a 'foreigner'. This exhibition produced by MFA candidate, Gerald
Machona, explores feelings of estrangement associated with 'foreignness',
but playfully disrupts negative associations of 'the alien' through
futuristic representations of an astronaut in the work Ndiri Afronaut (I am
an Afronaut).
Central to this body of work is the use of decommissioned Zimbabwean dollars
as an aesthetic material that signifies the forced economic migration of
Zimbabwean migrants into neighbouring SADC countries and abroad. While South
Africa hosts the largest population of these Zimbabwean nationals living in
the diaspora, there is a growing need in the postcolony to deconstruct
notions of individual and collective identity, for 'nations', 'nationalisms'
and 'citizenry' can no longer be defined through indigeneity, autochthony or
territory.
This exhibition adopts the premise that forms of cultural mediation such as
visual and performance art can offer insight and potential resistance to the
intolerance, misconceptions, social trauma and violence associated with
Afrophobia. Nyau, a masked masquerade originating in Malawi, which Machona
subtly references in much of his work, is a potentially subversive form of
performance that was used by the Chewa people while living as 'foreigners'
in Zimbabwe and other diasporas. When performing Gule Wamkulu, Chewa Nyau
masqueraders often used performance to comment on foreigners-the mulungu or
muzungu Caucasian Settler, the Chinese trader or the Arab trader-as a
strategy of creatively negotiating potentially precarious relationships. In
Zimbabwe, Gule Wamkulu performances became a signifier of 'Chewa-ness' for
those who sometimes faced xenophobic name-calling such as mabwidi or
mabvakure.
Adding a contemporary layer to the negotiation of imposed 'strangeness',
Machona creates performance characters that perform specific occupations
typical of African immigrants in South Africa today. For example, in a
beautifully woven mask made out of Zimbabwean dollars, he performed as a DJ
in the work Ndiri DJ (I am a DJ). He has also produced Ndiri Barber, Ndiri
Barman, Ndiri Cleaner and Ndiri Bouncer. Extending his use of the woven Zim
dollar mask, which references the Nyau masquerade, Machona has produced a
new character, Ndiri Afronaut that performs in an astronaut's suit made from
decommissioned currency. This out of space character journeys through the
mundane spaces of our everyday lives, seemingly oblivious to his/her alien
attire.
Machona received his undergraduate degree from the Michaelis School of Fine
Art, UCT, in 2009. He has exhibited/performed at the Goodman Gallery, the
Stevenson Gallery, the National Gallery of South Africa, the National Arts
Festival and the Standard Bank Gallery. VABVAKURE (People from Far Away)
will only show for one night.