Harare Painter Mavis Tauzeni's Reflections On Being A Woman In Zimbabwe

All images courtesy of First Floor Gallery Harare

Eve’s Diaries is the name of Zimbabwean artist Mavis Tauzeni’s first solo exhibition, now on view at First Floor Gallery Harare. Curated by Valerie Kabov, the show features paintings that use figure, form, and color to speak to the complexities and inner turmoil that go along with being a woman in contemporary Zimbabwe.

In ways that are both subtle and direct, Tauzeni's pieces seek to remind Zimbabwean women of their power. “Women in particular relate the physical with the spiritual and emotional in a uniquely powerful way being the givers of life and the nurturers of others," the artist says. Tauzeni invites the audience to consider how a Zimbabwean woman is meant to maneuver new expectations in the present world. According to her artist statement:

"How does she deal with the world, which says it is giving her power and knowledge, but not necessarily the space to exercise it, leaving the question as to what degree the world is prepared to give her that space. For socially, physically and culturally, without that space, a daughter of the new breed of Eve’s bound by traditional and social norms is bound to remain a butterfly in caterpillar state for too long. I ask then how am I going to be given the chance to bloom (the element of freedom) when I am always meant to stay closely tied in my bed."

Tauzeni’s strokes invite you in, yet their drips and abstractions create the kind of secrecy and eavesdropping that one might get from viewing someone else’s diary. Her dual use of words and figures reflects a tension that women face in having to subdue their minds because of the bodies they occupy. In her artist statement, Tauzen demands attention to her mind. “Give me an opportunity to have my voice be heard for once…and also listened to,” she says.

The exhibition's curator concludes, “While passionately expressive of her inner quest, Tauzeni facilities our own and for this we have to be grateful.”

Eve’s Diaries will be running from June 11 to July 30 at First Floor Gallery Harare in Harare, Zimbabwe.