Kresiah Mukwazhi: Kirawa

In Kirawa, her first solo exhibition at an Austrian institution, Kresiah Mukwazhi presents a new body of work consisting of textile paintings and video works. Her mixed-media collages, sculptures, videos, and performances are informed by her personal experiences and observations of gender-based violence, exploitation and abuse in her native Zimbabwe. In vibrant textile works, female figures perform seemingly vulgar and obscene gestures, hinting at the artist’s inquiries into the arduous working and living conditions of female sex workers in Zimbabwe’s patriarchal society. Against this backdrop of precarization and marginalization, Mukwazhi uses her powerful work as a form of visual activism, scrupulously carving out forms of resistance and self-empowerment. Mutual support and encouragement, together with humour as a weapon and means of resistance, are recurring themes in her work.

The artist describes Kirawa as a place of sacred resistance: “In this body of work, I am interested in creating moments of an imaginary safe place where we go to seek healing, fight battles, and find answers. I present a society that is at disharmony and disease because the life-bearers of this world are raped and abused every day. I ask who is responsible. When will it end?”

Trained as a photographer and visual artist in Zimbabwe and South Africa, Kresiah Mukwazhi works in a variety of media, including mixed-media collage, sculpture, performance, and video. Her vibrant textile works are often loosely hung on the walls or suspended from the ceiling. Mukwazhi combines materials including canvas, satin, or petticoat, stitching and gluing them together with applications such as sequin. Painted with acrylic and fabric dyes, female figures emerge from the ground. They perform seemingly vulgar and obscene gestures, hinting at the artist’s inquiries into the arduous working and living conditions of female sex workers in her native Zimbabwe’s patriarchal society. Often their last resort for supporting themselves, prostitution further exposes them to exploitation and violence. Against this backdrop of precarization and marginalization, Mukwazhi’s work scrupulously carves out forms of resistance and self-empowerment. Mutual support and encouragement, together with humor as a weapon and means of resistance, are recurring themes in the artist’s work.

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