A trip to Amsterdam was the influence for the central part of Chirwa's installation. © Richard Moss/24 Hour Museum.
Richard Moss took a trip to Brighton's Phoenix Gallery to hear how a Zambian artist fashioned a challenging but effective installation.
Perhaps it’s the children’s dolls, partially clothed and mildly provocative, or the wooden terraced houses and random pornographic images that make this, at first glance, an unsettling installation.
It is the work of Zambian artist David Chirwa, one of very few contemporary artists from Africa working in this medium. His installation, which runs at The Phoenix Gallery until November 27, is the result of a six-week residency.
© Richard Moss/24 Hour Museum
During his time here Chirwa been exploring how people from his home country view the west and he’s come up with some troubling answers - and yet more questions.
As well as disturbing, at first glance his work seems chaotic and raw, but as Chirwa explains these challenging forms are part of an exploration of the influence of modern technology and how different countries can affect and mimic each other - a theme that he began to develop when he was still in Africa.
“Before I came here I would be visiting the Internet cafes in Zambia and I was amazed to find lots of pornographic pop-ups on my computer,” explains Chirwa. “The Internet is a relatively new thing in Zambia – and it’s a good thing – but as I started going into Internet cafes I realised that a majority of young people are accessing pornographic materials.”
A stop-over in Amsterdam on the way to his residency in Brighton distilled the idea of exploring the way pornography is affecting Zambian culture.
© Richard Moss/24 Hour Museum
“This is a strange world we’re living in,” he muses, “where I am from pornography and prostitution are still illegal and outlawed. Being in Zambia and encountering pornography on the Internet raises questions about what kind of effect it has on society there.”
This accounts for the naked dolls in doorways and the random images plastered across the sides of his buildings - but this installation is not just about porn. What fascinates Chirwa is the broader idea of the west as a dream-like ideal for many people in Zambia - and how most of this knowledge of the west is accessed through the Internet and TV.
“There is little that can be gleaned through technology,” he says, “what you see on TV and media back home about the west is of a peaceful, orderly world.”
It’s a misperception that is reflected in Chirwa’s work – his small houses mimic the terraced rows of Brighton’s Hanover district - just north of the Phoenix Gallery. But there is also a sense of chaos and juxtaposition.
As you move past the dolls the viewer discovers a jumble of houses – a small shantytown that sits in comfortable chaos in the corner of the gallery.
© Richard Moss/24 Hour Museum
The artist’s physical journey is evident; from the shanty districts of the Zambian capital, Lusaka, through the porn infused streets of Amsterdam into the seemingly ordered calm of Britain with it’s quaint terraced housing.
But more than merely representing differences, Chirwa is concerned with how these worlds interact and the influences they exert upon each other.
“Back home traditional houses are in rural areas yet that kind of architecture is seen as inferior. So people start to build houses in the city but they don’t have any technical expertise – what they do have is an ideal that is influenced by the West.”
The result says Chirwa is chaos – together with a distinct lack of anything approaching an urban and Zambian architectural tradition. “Maybe you will have a thousand houses but only a hundred of them will be finished,” he explains. “Visually for a westerner it may be exciting but for the people in the city it isn’t.”
© Richard Moss/24 Hour Museum
Chirwa is an artist who is clearly still trying to resolve some of these issues and he admits to an often uncomfortable relationship with his work and chosen medium.
“I haven’t resolved the piece fully,” he admits, “and to be honest a lot of artists back home would be worrying about me wasting money on the materials than trying to figure out the meaning.”
In this postmodern era it is refreshing to hear an artist be so candid about his work and some of it’s perceived shortcomings. But beyond his doubts and obvious self-modesty Chirwa has successfully created an engaging installation that draws on what he terms ‘technological scenery’ and the way it is accessed by the third world.
“What I am trying to do here is reconstruct how the west is seen from this world,” he adds. I think in this respect he has succeeded perfectly.
David Chirwa's installation accompanies the Phoenix Galley's annual open studio programme and exhibition of work by Phoenix artists.
Gallery members at the Phoenix Gallery are in the process of developing and expanding its residency programme. Together with their series of courses, talks and seminars, Phoenix artists strive to give members of the public the opportunity to see and discuss the creative process involved in the production of works of art.
For more information click on the venue link below.
