A Food you eat with your hands
The Sadza Series is a community-wide celebration of Zimbabwean food traditions and contemporary art hosted by Nyasha Chigama and Tendai Mupita. Sadza is the ground meal foundation to so many Zimbabwean dishes, it also tells the story of a people. On display during the dinner will be the host’s work as they make connections between the food, ceramics, sculpture, and painting. The series is a call to action that brings mutual aid to the forefront. It is an invitation to friends and colleagues to collectively raise resources and create a web of support for those most vulnerable in these uncertain economic times exacerbated by debilitating inflation costs.
The Artists
Tendai and Nyasha are an art collective who works in various mediums. Most known works are ceramic and aluminium sculptures paintings and prints
-
FounderBio
Nyasha Chigama is a ceramic contemporary artist and recently graduated with her MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University in the United States. In 2016 She graduated with a BFA from Chinhoyi University of Technology in Zimbabwe. Nyasha grew up in the capital city Harare with two siblings and her mother a high school teacher. Later on, she relocated to a rural east town in Zimbabwe called Goromonzi where she lives with some of the most under priviledged women which allows her to immerse herself into their way of living. She believes this gives her some knowledhe on how to solve some of the problems faced in these type of communities that are patriachial dominated. She has been practising ceramics in her home studio in Goromonzi before she decided to pursue her studies at Virginia Commonwhealth University. She has participated in several annual exhibitions at gallery delta in Harare, has also collaborated with College for Creative Studies in Detroit and she has exhibited with post studios arts collective which is in South Africa. Nyasha’s work mainly focuses on ways in which people adapt especially in regards to women that are in her cultural spheres. She explores the copying mechanisms that one adapts in certain environments and she does this in an autobiographical way through immersing her experiences in most of her work. Nyasha is also a teaching assistant who has taught under the supervision of Blair Clemo and Elissa Armstrong.she has also worked under South African renowened artists Madhodha Fani and Nicholas Sithole.
-
BioTendai Mupita was born in 1990, in Harare, Zimbabwe. In 2015, he received his Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Fine Art from Chinhoyi University of Technology. Mupita, trained with leading master printmakers in Johannesburg, such as David Krut and Artist Proof Studio, where he worked as an assistant to a resident artist. He acquired extensive skills in etching, monotypes, lino cutting, and calligraphy as well as numerous other techniques. In 2014 Mupita began researching fractals and in particular their relationship to both nature and African traditional cultural practices from basketweaving to architecture and found a rich thematic field, which created a wealth of synergies with his interest in working with paper- based techniques.
In 2017 Mupita was awarded a Blessing Ngobeni residency with The Bag Factory in Johannesburg, South Africa, and his first solo show with First Floor Gallery in Harare, Zimbabwe. He has been included in numerous group exhibitions in Kenya, USA, Germany, and London. Mupita’s recent solo exhibition titled ‘kuedza mudzimu nesengere’ at T293 in Rome, Italy (2020) and the show was featured in the Art Forum September issue of 2020. In 2019 he got accepted to Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting in Maine, USA which is a prestigious summer residency program. He graduated with an MFA in Sculpture at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, USA.
The Team
-
Tendai Mupita
CO-FOUNDER
-
Nyasha Chigama
CO-FOUNDER
-
Wes Taylor
Design/Strategy