Kudzanai the rockstar

Winner of this year’s FNB Art Prize, Kudzanai Chiurai’s exhibition will form the centerpiece of the Joburg Art Fair, which starts tomorrow.

Since appearing on Documenta 13 this year, Kudzanai Chiurai has rocked all the way from Rolling Stone to CNN. Reputedly shy, we did somehow manage to get just a few words out of the 31-year old Zimbabwean-born artist.

Coming from Zimbabwe, what do you enjoy about living in South Africa?

I enjoy the diversity, energy and its many contradictions.  

What can we expect from your exhibition at the Joburg Art Fair?

I will be showing videos, photographs and a drawing.

Last year in your much talked about State of the Nation exhibition and performance, “the dictator” was a strong theme. It was also the year that Kim Long Il died and Gaddafi was toppled. Nando’s brought out their advert and Sasha Baron Cohen released The Dictator. What is going on?

Dictators feed our imagination. They seek attention and we give it to them just to see how far they can push the boundaries.

Your work already hangs in the Museum of Modern Art, and in Elton John and Richard Branson’s homes. Where would you most like to hang your work?

I don’t know where else my work could hang. Maybe a dictator’s palace would be a fitting home for one of my works.

A lot of people are saying that you’re “one to watch”. Do you get performance anxiety?

I do get performance anxiety; every exhibition makes me nervous. To the point where I wish I had not made work for the exhibition!

In the past you have dabbled with a bit of graphic and poster design. Any chance of more of that?

Every year I have a poster show. A lot of my friends are graphic designers, so I have learnt a couple of things from them about design. Recently I had a poster show at Co-op in Braamfontien.