Situationism and the artist

Standard People
The incantations of the classic art world were for the greater part challenged by the immediate contemporary of any movement in that day

The incantations of the classic art world were for the greater part challenged by the immediate contemporary of any movement in that day; the organised style and form existed solely to satisfy the frugal intelligentsia who played patron to it, the dwarf figure that addressed the will of the masses, however, in almost every case established the reactionary frameworks that triggered the aesthetic chaos of breakthrough, regardless of being dubbed rustic, cheap or naive by the elite.

By National Gallery of Zimbabwe

This was what the Baroque, the Romantic and Neo-classicism found themselves in; being supplanted by the impressionists with their pamphlet carrying angst-driven proponents stripping away “beauty” from the realistic and placing technique on a pedestal as opposed to fineness.

The chaotic nature of the art world works in that field, which Karl Marx postulated as a two-way conflict that is based on labour and the commodity. Control in such chaos is at the very onset hard to establish as any interruption of the push and pull of the giant and dwarf relationship therein can initiate the most oblivious outcome. Mutations and permutations lie at the core of an exhibition by Tapfuma Gutsa; the most precise practice of weaving and the ratios that govern all forms lie central to the body of work he will be showing.

Gutsa as an artist embodies an intermediary in the aforementioned Marxist reference; a definitive summarisation of the artistic experience where the chaotic energy is channelled through and around to make him the force that redirects thought and insights. One could argue that his role in the stone sculpture movement and the style of work he produced, generated the breakthrough that has made art in Zimbabwe all the more lucrative, that is, from the eyes of the intelligentsia.

Theatre of the Absurd by Tapfuma Gutsa
Theatre of the Absurd by Tapfuma Gutsa

Beyond this breakthrough, Gutsa has always been able to create bodies of work which are heavily responsive to his surroundings both formalistically and in narrative. Hwange, Nzuzu or Ya Asentewa; the clarity of the artist’s place in the construct of his immediate space and situational benchmarks. It is this fascinating aspect that makes the exhibition all the more enthralling as it is to some point abounding with anti-artistic sentiments and its situationist rapport.

The situationist experience is what grants Gutsa a wider creative scope for this exhibition, the fascination with counter-changing elements is one of the outstanding features of his work. With the work’s highly contrasted colour, geometric forms and surrealistic interpretations and connotations; Gutsa hints at letting the viewer react in a series of ways, notably either to fight, fear or run!

What lies all the more central to Gutsa’s highly responsive modus vivendi is the ever-evolving choice of media and the innumerable techniques utilised to create a body of work that some appreciators of his work, would believe are not his on first viewing of the works. This aspect of the situationist approach equals sustainability as practice is not based on a high monetary input, but draws a vessel to control chaos in a two- way system that can either implode or explode into void.

The exhibition will open to the public on October 9 and will be followed by a session of the Harare conversations on October 16.