59 - ‡ MAVIS TAUZENI (ZIMBABWEAN B.1985)

‡ MAVIS TAUZENI (ZIMBABWEAN B.1985) VISIONARIES PART 5, 2019 acrylic, ink, stitching, spray paint and collage on canvas 146 x 109cm Property from an Important International Collection Provenance Acquired by First Floor Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe Exhibitions AKAA Art & Design Fair 2019, Paris, AKAA Art & Design Fair 2019, First Floor Gallery, November 2019 Mavis Tauzeni is a contemporary Zimbabwean mixed-media artist whose evocative work explores the intersections of identity, womanhood, and societal expectation. Born in the rural, deeply traditional district of Mutoko, Zimbabwe, Tauzeni moved to Harare as a teenager. This transition from a landscape immersed in nature and ancestral traditions to a bustling urban centre profoundly shaped her personal and artistic worldview. Driven by a fierce determination to carve out an independent life, Tauzeni fought hard against conservative family dynamics that traditionally relegated single women to the roles of adjunct family caregivers. She pursued her studies at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Visual Art Studio, graduating in 2009 with a specialisation in printmaking and painting. Over the years, her practice has expanded dynamically to incorporate stitching and intricate fabric collage on canvas. As a prominent voice of a new generation of Zimbabwean women, Tauzeni asserts the right to self-determination with quiet confidence and gentle poetry The present work revisits the artist’s Visionaries series of 2014–2015, in which she examined contemporary urban Zimbabwean women and the idea of social and cultural ambition in the context of identity and aspiration. Visionaries (2019) developed out of the artist’s research into women in urban centres across Africa, from Lagos to Durban, Dakar, Johannesburg and Harare. These are proto-portraits: idea-driven depictions not of individuals but of the idea of a woman, based on what women do, how they are perceived socially, what is expected of them and how that shapes the way they present themselves. The works are made on unstretched canvases and incorporate a complex combination of images and techniques, which work together to build the narrative of each piece. Stitching, collage, card-print, painting, ink pouring and drawing combine to build images that enable the viewer to zoom in on elements of their choice, opening a conversation about priorities in image-making, both in art and in life.