The Sunday Mail
Andrew Moyo
“THE mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
This quote from Dr William Arthur Ward aptly describes Harare Polytechnic’s Dean of Students, Cosmas Shiridzinomwa. This is no ordinary lecturer. While he has been teaching art for close to two decades, he has also made a name outside the lecture room, having established himself as one of the finest artists in the country.
A source of inspiration for many, the artist’s ability with the paintbrush has seen his artworks being exhibited not just locally but on international platforms as well.
It is no surprise that Shiridzinomwa is one of the four artists selected to represent Zimbabwe at the 58th Venice Biennale in Italy.
Born and bred in Harare, the 45-year-old’s fascination with art came about during his years in primary school after realising that he was a bit more creative than most of his peers.
“My artistic journey started outside the formal school set-up when I noticed that the things I drew or moulded from clay were way better than what others my age were creating. When I was given class creative assignments at primary school I usually got very high marks and inspiring comments from teachers with my works being displayed in the classrooms and glassed noticed boards.
“When I went to high school, I took up art as one of my subjects, excelling in that department and it was at this stage that I got opportunities to visit galleries in Harare, which opened my eyes to the prospect of making a lifetime career out of my creative capabilities,” said Shiridzinomwa.
While most parents would urge their children to concentrate on mainstream academic studies rather than creative elements, a young Shiridzinomwa got all the support he needed.
“My parents supported me from the early stages. Then came the friends, neighbours and teachers that saw what I was capable of doing artistically. Everyone around me inspired me to continue doing it until it became my major occupation.”
After high school, the then aspiring artist enrolled at Harare Polytechnic where he took up art as his area of study. After graduating in the mid ’90s, he never turned back.
Shiridzinomwa specialises in painting, preferring to use imageries that his audiences are familiar with. With the belief that the main idea of creating is communicating, his subject matters range from personal to socio-political elements.
Despite having taken part in numerous international exhibitions, the painter believes participating at the Italian spectacle is an honour.
He said: “Being part of the four that will be exhibiting at the biennial is a good thing worth taking seriously because I will be representing my country, which has obviously been tracking my progress as an artist. They feel that I am worthy of representing Zimbabwe at such a big platform. It will be a chance to let the world know that the best comes from Zimbabwe.”
Having a full time job while sparing time to create internationally acclaimed artworks can be daunting, but Shiridzinomwa balances the two well.
“I am an art lecturer at the Harare Polytechnic, something I have been doing for the past 19 years, and I also oversee student’s affairs at the said institution. I manage to balance my work at the college with my creative occupation because I realised that they feed into each other.
“Lecturing what I practice and working among young people who happen to be my source of inspiration, and the first audience of my creations is a scenario that works perfectly for me.”
He bemoaned the bias, in the local arts industry, towards certain arts genres like music and performance.
“Not much about the visual arts in terms of appreciation has been instilled in our wider Zimbabwean populace. Some find themselves in influential positions in industry or media yet fail to support or promote visual arts. They would rather support and promote the other ‘obvious’ art forms, which are mainly musical and performance.
“However, local visual artists remain creative regardless of a weak local market. What needs to be done is to award equal attention to the visual arts and this can be achieved through writing about it in newspapers and talking about it on television programmes.”
