Exhibitions
Gabriel Tendai Choto 'Kumba'
Anima Mundi are delighted to present ‘Kumba’ by Gabriel Tendai Choto.
“Sometimes we feel we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools.” - Salman Rushdie
‘Kumba’ (the Shona word for ‘home’) is a collection of works, made leading up to the birth of Choto's first daughter, exploring personal diaspora and identity.
Combining the twin disciplines of printmaking and painting, primarily in oil on paper, through his singular technique, Choto seeks new pathways into the painted image by taking cues from the surface quality produced by the printmaking process.
His evolving, experimental practice involves layering painted areas of naturalism over the delicate compositional architecture of etching, resulting in paintings where physical presence and absence imply a metaphoric liminal state.
Extraordinarily sensitive and intimate, these images depict varied moments of contemplation and self examination. To aid navigation they could perhaps be divided in to three simplified sections. The first, a series of works derived from old family photographs, piece together ephemeral snippets of nostalgia where family and friendship provide a firm rootedness. The second, a series of self portraits, where through constructed situations the artist explores, examines and enforces his own broadening identity. The third group of works which depict images of people currently living in Africa, in circumstances very different to those that Choto now finds himself in. When combined, each chapter illustrates a profoundly moving, cultural straddling where one is aware of the duel states of connection and separation peculiar to the diasporic condition.
‘Kumba’ (the Shona word for ‘home’) is a collection of works, made leading up to the birth of Choto's first daughter, exploring personal diaspora and identity.
Combining the twin disciplines of printmaking and painting, primarily in oil on paper, through his singular technique, Choto seeks new pathways into the painted image by taking cues from the surface quality produced by the printmaking process.
His evolving, experimental practice involves layering painted areas of naturalism over the delicate compositional architecture of etching, resulting in paintings where physical presence and absence imply a metaphoric liminal state.
Extraordinarily sensitive and intimate, these images depict varied moments of contemplation and self examination. To aid navigation they could perhaps be divided in to three simplified sections. The first, a series of works derived from old family photographs, piece together ephemeral snippets of nostalgia where family and friendship provide a firm rootedness. The second, a series of self portraits, where through constructed situations the artist explores, examines and enforces his own broadening identity. The third group of works which depict images of people currently living in Africa, in circumstances very different to those that Choto now finds himself in. When combined, each chapter illustrates a profoundly moving, cultural straddling where one is aware of the duel states of connection and separation peculiar to the diasporic condition.
CREDIT
