Berry Bickle was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Having studied Fine Art at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) Bickle went on to complete a postgraduate degree, majoring in painting. Bickle has recently returned to Zimbabwe after living in Maputo for fifteen years.

Ever since she has worked in a diverse range of mediums. These include installation; video; ceramics; contemporary dance and photography. With the latter two, she has worked in urban spaces in order to analyse contemporary histories and the archival as subjects of her work.

Collaboration; the act of writing (or rewriting); and the manipulation of both archival and personal material are central components of Bickle’s practice. Here the processes of printing, scratching, and burning fragments of text create layered translations that become surfaces through which to consider processes of personal and collective memory.

Questions of race, geopolitics, power, and psychological violence are foregrounded through an examination of text, history, and memory. In doing so, Bickle draws our attention to the existence of alternate stories, those buried beneath the weight of dominant narratives, and the consequences of their subsequent erasure.

Bickle’s work has been exhibited extensively across the globe, participating in biennales from Havana (Cuba) and Venice (Italy) through to Dakar (Senegal); Johannesburg (South Africa); and Bamako (Mali). Her work was also included in Simon Njami’s renowned traveling exhibition Africa Remix from 2004 to 2007.

Berry Bickle works are featured in the Zeitz MOCAA exhibition, Five Bhobh – Painting at the End of an Era (2018 – 2019).