The Melrose Gallery is pleased to announce Ronald Muchatuta’s solo exhibition ‘Kurarama – To Survive’, following on from his well-received presentation at the Stellenbosch Triennale. The Triennale closed prematurely due to Covid-19 and Ronald created this body of work during the lockdown in South Africa.
The impact of the pandemic on the global community and the way in which it forced mankind to slow down, to take a breath and to consider what is most important in our lives has had a marked effect on Ronald’s life and this body of work in particular.
“For Ronald, the quest for art is a never-ending chase, and what enlightenment it can bring; opening doors of perception onto unknown realities. A redeeming force, it can prevent man from stopping in his tracks, from moving backward and dragging his own world with him. I am glad that being out there in South Africa, Muchatuta is able to withstand the diasporic pressure and to be able to practice as a notable artist.” Raphael Chikukwa (Chief Curator National Gallery of Zimbabwe)
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Creative Mzansi, meet Ronald Muchatuta
Celebrating South African art 6 Jun 2021'The Studio is the Laboratory and Temple. Alot of Meditation and Experiments take place in this creative sanctuary. Away from the madness and uproars of life. The Artist finds tranquility... -
The Exhibition
The title of the exhibition "Kurarama", a Shona word for "Survive or Survival", focuses on our state of being in our African continent - our emotional attributes and definitive moments of existence. This body of work is a celebration of humankind and life.
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The 2021 artworks that Ronald created during this period of isolation are dominated by the colour blue. Although he explains this to be unintentional, he recognises that he is currently drawn to the colour which speaks to royalty, effective spiritual and political leadership (or a lack thereof), depression and a shutdown in terms of feeling and emotion.
The works were created using a collage type process that involves the layering of original drawings, painting and illustration onto canvas. Many of the pieces show examples of repetition which speaks to the passing down of knowledge from one generation to another and further expands on the concept of a general feeling of numbness towards systems and emotions.
The ‘melancholy’ mood that is present in many of Ronald’s works pervades the exhibition with the juxtaposition of ‘classical’ illustration and old fashioned framing on some of the works with the use of bright contemporary colour and application of materials and themes.
“Kurarama’ means ‘to survive’ and it is through survival that we find beauty in life and death. The yin-yang philosophy reflects on how the end of life in one dimension can be seen as a fresh start in another. The circle of life. The burning of the veldt before new vegetation sprouts. The land needs to breathe; we need to breathe. This body of work crosses points of our existence. The mark of existence comes in the forms of legacy, spirituality, youth, beauty, and cultural conditioning.” Ronald Muchatuta
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Ronald MuchatutaThe Introspect, 2020Mixed Media on Canvas100 x 150 cmSoldThe Introspect
We are not on our own. Instead, we travel with our subconscious. It's a place where we deposit the products of our conscious self. The products of the conscious are released through our interactions with loved ones, society, social media and, of course, reflecting into the past - nostalgia or perhaps something more. Introspect is where one finds purpose, assurance and the definition of one's own existence.
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"Green, orange, brown. A smile, a kiss. Joined shoes. A spectacle with sighting and vision. Shapes - forms within foresight. The joy of chaos. Happiness riding with thrill. Oh, how I missed you, colour." Ronald Muchatuta
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Ronald MuchatutaSun Goddess, 2020Mixed Media on Canvas150 x 100 cmSold
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Ronald MuchatutaEcho, 2020Mixed Media on Canvas85 x 60 cm
Symbolic Spaces
Framing the worksThe process of framing, unframing, or simply not framing the works looks at the juxtapositioning of the post-modern and contemporary. It is a process of a continuous cultural interpretation and reinterpretation, as semiotic mediation, and as a heterogeneous composition of different, often contradictory, layers of meaning. How does the frame, as a tool, shape and unshape an artwork that, in itself, is a symbolic space of contestation evoked by the assemblage of images on Ronald's canvases? Can the frame act even within the placement by the artist?
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A note from the curator
Ruzy RusikeCursed in earth and subdued by death, man found himself beset by time, and his instincts put to the test. Only then, he realized that with love he could survive, and that for a certain purpose he would toil. For those whom my love can not immune from death, are dedicated these paintings, in the hope they may express in drawing the reality of a resonant mind. (Iraq Painter, Ala Bashir)
The construction and deconstruction of Ronald Muchatuta's paintings occur without interrogation. The life that his paintings exude happens through the tears of the paper that is often left exposed. In doing so, the texture is literally scratched into an environment where the picture's surface denies a single existence and one is urged to move closer. Kurarama - To Survive is an exhibition that looks at his paintings and the process of painting as a representation of a language that can exclude or include by means of its chains of association. Much like language, identity, culture, religion and power are fluid, his artworks never remain stagnant but instead shift with disruption, evoked by the collaging of images. The paintings simultaneously reveal the self to the self, as though witnessing his art necessitates coming to an awareness. This act of self-knowledge is innate and natural, a sensation of coming home to oneself or employing one's own system of understanding. The embodiment of violence here, through revelation and visibility, the layering and tearing acts as a corrosive currency that binds the self and the other through what is thought of as inherent and intrinsic, and what is displacing and distorting (Harrow, S. 2016: 965).
Hence, my intention is to assert that Kurarama - To Survive challenges and transforms the array of intentions to gaze, reflect and recognize when looking at a painting. This internalizes the violence of the other in ways that anticipate the self-rapture when confronted with the terrain of Kurarama - To Survive. Despite the works terrorising influence, a salve is offered simultaneously - an aura of peace or romanticism that placates the viewer as they contemplate his work.
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Ronald MuchatutaTrying Times, 2020Mixed Media on Canvas150 x 100 cmSoldTrying Times
In these Covid-19 times, even breathing is an act of rebellion against an unknown viral enemy - an enemy that poses a threat to the world's very survival. The Artist is asking the viewer to understand that, as difficult as things may seem, we need to be hopeful. Part of being hopeful is to create humour in the most serious of times. This celebrates our distinctly human ability to endure and adapt to stressful circumstances, with a slight smile on our faces.
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The surface
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Ronald MuchatutaI pray for you mercy and kindness, 2020Mixed media on canvas100 x 150 cmSold
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"My greatest achievement to date has been having a voice." Ronald Muchatuta
