The 2013 paintings were made in response to Kamudzengerere’s landing in Europe for a two-year stay at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. Away from home, estranged from his two boys, and having become an instant (and supposedly inferior) minority, Kamudzengerere looked to painting as the chess board onto which to reflect his anxieties, anger, and longing. These canvases reveal his ideas regarding Western references and strategies that he would implement in order to break through the “White Curtain” placed between him and the international art world.
“This is a language I use to get through to people in protective eggshells; a language that hits the human code in search of an authentic response. The canvas is my chessboard, colors are my pieces, and I am painting about life: the struggle of a pawn within a complex political society.” – Admire Kamudzengerere, 2013
En Passant, 2013, Oil on canvas, 84 × 78.5 in
213 × 199 cm
The Ripper and the Clock in Scream, 2013, Oil on canvas, 84 × 78.5 in | 213 × 199 cm
Cockerel Kasparov of Stalemate, 2013, Zimbabwean earth and mixed pigments on canvas, 46.5 × 30 in | 118 × 80 cm