Taura/I Zvenu the title of heeten bhagat’s essay in the Five Bhobh: Painting at the End of an Era catalogue is a play on the phrase ‘taura zvenu’ (speak about your own affairs) and ‘taurai zvenu’ (that’s what I’m talking about!). It raises questions about the experience of an artwork and its subsequent translation.
Join us as we delve deeper into this and other contributions to the exhibition catalogue. Panellists will include writers, heetan bhagat, Hayden Proud and artist Berry Bickle. The discussion will be moderated by the exhibition’s curator, Tandazani Dhlakama.
This event is free with museum admission and RSVP is essential. Click here to book your seat.
About heeten bhagat:
heeten bhagat was born in Zimbabwe some time ago. Presently, however, he oscillates between Harare, Cape Town, and any place that involves long-distance travel. He performs across various terrains ranging from what is expected of him to what he doesn’t understand. It is in this latter territory that he feels he is at his most productive. Currently journeying through a PhD, he simultaneously offers creative, strategic, and manual-labour support to a number of organisations and communities regionally. His hope is to continue to extend this continentally and beyond.
bhagat’s initial training as a pattern cutter has allowed him the chance to grow, to experience and to work: designing period costumes; building sets for adventure programmes; making experimental films; curating a national gallery; teaching at a French university; providing strategic support to newer organisations; making curious podcasts; and inviting a provocative hybridity to his family’s cookbook. He was described as a polymath by an extraordinary man – a badge he actively aims to polish and live up to.
About Hayden Proud:
Hayden Proud was born and educated in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. He is currently Curator of Historical Paintings and Sculpture at Iziko Museums of South Africa. After studying art education and majoring in painting at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town (UCT), he took postgraduate degrees in Art History at University of South Africa (UNISA) and at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where he studied medieval art. Proud has an established reputation as an active curator, scholar, and a former lecturer at UCT.
He currently teaches a postgraduate curatorial programme at UCT’s Centre for Curating the Archive, assisting in shaping a new generation of curators. His various publications include the book, Revisions: Expanding the Narrative of South African Art (SAHO/UNISA Press, 2007) and a recent essay on the work of Zimbabwean artist Richard Mudariki entitled The Painter from Chitungwiza, published in the catalogue of his recent touring solo exhibition, Mutara Wenguva “Time Line” (Sanlam Art Collection, 2017).
About Berry Bickle:
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. 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 materials 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 the 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.