TELLING ZIMBABWEAN STORY THROUGH PAINT

From Calligraphing walls to bus.

Zimbabwe’s number one ranked, best Calligrapher Marcus Zvinavashe and his team created one of the unique works on the continent that tells African, Zimbabwean, culture, tradition, origins of a Zimbabwe and more.

In an exclusive interview with Zvinavashe provides an insight of how music, played a major collaboration in their latest work. And the story that is told by their latest work.

TR: Hie Marcus thank you for your time! 

Your Caligraph projects are expanding from City to City are people in Zimbabwe understanding the definition of your work? 

MZ: The work has drawn curiosity and much support in the various spaces and communities we have been. 

TR: Do you mind differentiating between Calligraphy and Graffiti?

 MZ: Graffiti is often associated with vandalism which is not always the case. There is nothing wrong with graffiti when done legally.

It’s just style of public art that we sometimes do. Calligraphy is the art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering done by hand. 

This is our space, that’s what we do, and we always use brushes and Airbrush. 

TR: I was one of the lucky ones as I had an opportunity to witness, your latest project the ‘bus’. Who owns the bus? 

MZ: The bus is owned and known as Ruwizhi Bus Service.

TR: Take us to the creativity and the message the bus is telling?

MZ: Shingai is the one who came up with the concept. The bus is featured in her upcoming music video “No Fear” ft. Verseless. 

She wrote the treatment for the video, the concept and we interpreted it and painted it on the bus. The two faces painted on the bus are Shingai and Verseless. They are the two musicians who did “No Fear” and the concept said we paint their faces on the bus – for the music video. 

The patterns are a representation of the Zimbabwean tribes and languages. Shingai feels this song “No Fear” is a song about her her ancestral home and she wanted to represent her home in the video through the bus.

 We painted most of the patterns that represent Zimbabwe and its culture according to the reseach we did. 

TR: From Walls to the bus why? 

MZ: It was a challenge one we appreciated and more so it’s about scale. We are embracing large format work as we continuously evolve in our body of work while fulfilling Done Different. A motto and promise we live by.

TR: How long did it take you to finish working on the bus and what type of paints did you use? 

MZ: It took us less than a week to finish the bus. 

We were working with oil-based paints. 

TR: Are you planning to exhibit the bus, any arts institution or activity area? 

MZ: We have a public approach towards our work and regards to the bus it being on the road is an exhibition for us.

TR: Who is the owner of the bus?

MZ: The bus is owned and known as Ruwizhi Bus Service.

TR: Marcus can you brief of us your journey into the industry of Calligraphy?

MZ: It was never an easy one and still is not. 

We have had to sacrifice for what we love; we have had to unlearn to learn so that the body of our work grows. Much love to our families, friends and mentors who have and continously hold us down. 

TR: Should we expect more work done in the bus sides?

MZ: All l can say is watch this space. 

TR: Lastly, I would like to ask if you can help me to calligraphy my car?

MZ: Why not?  (Giggles)