Murmures

Womanhood/humai is a complex and diverse issue that goes beyond anatomy. In the harsh economic climate that we now live in, women have been relegated to the voiceless zone, unable to speak and unable to tell their stories.

But, all is not gloomy for women as the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) will celebrate the role they play in society with an exhibition titled 'Out of Darkness'.

The exhibition slated to run from Saturday March 21 to Monday April 20, 2015 at the NGZ will also be a celebration of the International Women's Day being commemorated globally on March 8.

Speaking on the exhibition the NGZ curator, Rapheal Chikukwa said, "This exhibition seeks to provide an opportunity for women artists to tell their story using different mediums which include sculpture, painting, photography, new media and installation."

"Society and state have exacerbated women's traumatic experiences of divisions of home, families and property. Arguably nationalist ideology set woman up as victim and goddess simultaneously making woman the allegory for the failure to coordinate the political and ontological with the epistemological within an undivided individual capacity."

"Works ideally will show the strength of women and their importance celebrating womanhood," added Chikukwa.

Women in telling their stories, pay acute attention to this aspect of their personified lives giving them strength and dignity that is of their making that lies outside the domain of what is socially approved or normative behaviour.

"We are encouraging female artists to submit artworks before Wednesday February 25, 2015 which deal with the themes of motherhood, womanhood, female roles, identity, modernity, and external influences versus tradition," said Chikukwa.