1. The artworks in Gallery 1 explore a single dream
Many works within the exhibition are largely inspired by dreams that the artist has had, and all of the paintings in Gallery 1 are based upon a single dream. Portia views her dreams as places where she exists in an alternative state of being.
She works on multiple paintings at a time, so all these artworks are in conversation with each other, encapsulating all of the emotions that she experienced during this dream. She typically ends her painting series with a ‘victory painting’, to finish the work on a positive note after processing the difficult emotions that she may experience in her dreams, during the process of painting.
2. The exhibition features painting and printing
Portia’s method of creating her artworks integrate both painting and printing techniques through layering: applying and subtracting materials. The composition is first brushed with strokes of printing ink or drawn with oil bar crayon onto a canvas. After this initial layering or sketching is finished, the artist then applies molten wax, using a batik tool called a tjanting, to create a network of marks and stains. These are later revealed through the scraping off and removal of the wax using the back of an old metal spoon or a domestic iron. The method is of veiling and unveiling, covering and disclosing until the unified effect is achieved.
To achieve the pattern work seen across the paintings, Portia uses a variety of objects for printing, including creating cardboard stencils, and using palm leaves from her garden. These are then covered with printers ink, and pressed into the artwork.
3. Portia’s artwork begins on the floor
When Portia first begins to create her work, the large canvas lies flat on the floor. Only once the design is mapped and laid out is the work raised upright and pinned to a board or wall. This allows her to push the printing ink into the canvas. After she has applied the thick layers of printing ink, the canvas is raised, so that gravity forces the ink to drip. When you visit the exhibition, look out for the drip marks in the paintings on display.
4. The exhibition is titled in Shona
The title of the exhibition Zvakazarurwa means ‘relevations’ in Shona, the language in which Portia thinks and dreams. The title symbolises the things that have been ‘revealed’ to the artist during her dreams, and references the final book of the Christian Bible, also known as ‘The Book of the Apocalypse’. It is notable that the title refers to the bible, a text which was introduced into Zimbabwe as an English text, and read by a variety of Shona-speaking communities during and following the colonial period.
5. Many of the paintings are autobiographical
The exhibition in large part, explores women’s experience, as Portia incorporates her life and personal experience into the artworks.
For example, ‘Labour Ward’ and ‘Labour Pains’ demonstrate the struggles and fear that the artist experienced during her first pregnancy. However, ‘Labour Ward’ also shows the sense of solidarity in that environment, as Portia found emotional support from the other women, as they were united in their experience of giving birth.
6. Many of the artworks have a blank space around them
Portia is a Christian, and thus her paintings often reflect her religious beliefs. Many of the artworks on display at Kettle’s Yard leave large parts of the canvas blank, which is in stark contrast to the bold, rich colours of her paintings. The blank space is intentionally left so it can be filled by a ‘higher power’. The artist feels that she is not always in complete control of everything, so these spaces are left clear, asking God to guide the way and help her finish the work.
7. Rats have a symbolic significance in Portia’s painting
Many of the artworks in Gallery 1 feature rats, vicious and demonic. Although animals in Portia’s work always symbolise a threat, rats have a particular significance. In ‘Pane rima rakakomba’ (There’s too much darkness) 2023, the artist recounts a dream that she had whilst pregnant with her third child, as her body is surrounded by rats, representing the various threats that could harm herself, her children, or the child that she carries in her womb. As with many of her paintings, there is also religious symbolism, as a divine figure stands above the rats, protecting the artist.
Portia Zvavahera: Zvakazarurwa
Experience large-scale paintings and vivid dreams in our current exhibition by Portia Zvavahera (b. 1985, Zimbabwe). The paintings on display showcase Zvavahera’s unique combination of techniques – painting, block-printing, and batik stencilling. In the exhibition you will see patterned and intensely coloured paintings that weave together dreams, fantasies, and the spiritual traditions the artist grew up with.
