“Burnt Offerings;

Re-Invention;

Taking Flight.”

Lin Barrie

Johnson Zuze

Kelli Barker

Our art exhibition opened very well supported and is on view at Pikicha Gallery every weekday till the end of July- then will be ongoing on line. A powerful art film is running at the gallery in conjunction with my paintings and Johnson Zuze’s snare wire sculptures.  The art film will go onto YouTube – it’s very important to keep this art collaboration out in the public space as it addresses issues we all face – trial by fire, real and metaphorical- whether death and calamity, depression, drugs or socio-economic pressures such as  joblessness or poaching …

Johnson Kelli and I have all suffered destructive house fires and have long planned this cleansing “Burnt Offerings” exhibition …

Kelli Barker, talented Make up and body artist, has turned also to film production in this art exhibition, together with her collaborators Sebastien Lallemand, Faz Pixels, Hope Masike- along with a large and fabulous all-local crew of creatives – the film is set to turn many heads and minds ….

Heads up: featured in the film are my found objects – giant land snail shells – which hold a strong place in my heart and in the culture of the Mahenye people … read my link for more stories about snail shells and fire !

https://wildlifeandwilddogs.wordpress.com/2016/05/13/of-giant-snails-and-tradition-fire-and-totems/

One of the set characters in the art film is Johnson’s Blue Man -a winged Njuzu type being, who, In Johnson’s n’a narrative, aliases as an Egyptian god resurrected. Very powerful and made from snare wire and waste plastic bottles…see my previous blog for more on this character…https://wineandwilddogs.art/2023/06/11/njuzu-winged-waterman/

Johnson Zuze creates incredible wire and found objects sculpture from snare wire that I collect in the field at Senuko in the Save Valley Conservancy. Much like life, we can use negativity to create positivity- creating beauty out of brutality.

I find deadly fascination in the twisted shapes of my found snare wire- layers of stories, graphic twists…

Narratives unravel as my Snare wire undergoes re-genesis in Johnson’s capable hands – living in Chitungwiza, here he works on a life size winged ram … a burnt offering of snare wire

I am entranced by the culture of storytelling, tradition. The Ngano (stories) told around the campfire and the hearth. The baboon and the hare are classic protagonists in Shona and Xangana storytelling and this snare wire sculpture reflects an oral traditional story called “The Party”

Johnson and I see eye to eye in the joy of storytelling, in the use of re-cycled trash and snare wire to create art! …

Art and stories merge as Johnson’s “Shell wasps” hatch from snare wire and my giant land snail shells…with a shell sting in their tails (tales)!

Some of my paintings and installations are of snare wire, re-purposed-

My statement that we can all make a difference in our environment by re-inventing the trash, the waste and found objects around us….

Snail shells are an important theme for me, being a strong thread in the Mahenye clan story- (read my blog for more on that story as per previous link in this article)

I have cast some snail shells with Simpli Simbi, using re- cycled aluminum … which combine with clay pots and snare wire ‘ hatas’ to make a powerful art/conservation statement…

this is my hearthside story – our human story, open to memories of grandmothers coiling and creating clay pots from earth and fire, fire embers collected in snail shells, snare wire used to harvest bushmeat reinvented as a strange hata to support and carry clay pots on the head….

Celebrating honouring and re-inventing dynamic culture, from snare wire to hata to hairstyle….

My art interview with Farai of StoryUntold in Zimbabwe gives a bit of my history as an artist working in the wild areas of Zimbabwe, art conservation and snare wire!!!

youtu.be/WwwHVQcx-GQ

Taking flight- myself, my daughter Kelli Barker and my life partner Clive Stockil with my huge painting called  “Winged Things’, mixed media on canvas, at the ‘Burnt Offerings, Re-Invention, Taking Flight” exhibition…..

Pikicha Gallery at Emagumeni Helensvale is a multi-cultural creative space; well worth a visit – and is open weekday for viewing the artworks and the art film. At weekends great local food and music are to be had.

Tourists, Visitors and residents in Harare will find much of interest to view …