A conversation with Georgina Maxim

Georgina Maxim commonly known as Gina Maxim, has earned my admiration. Not for anything spectacular like climbing mount Everest on her own. Rather the ability of her art to move me. She has managed to hold her own in a climate that is doubly difficult for a female artist. Her assemblage 'Kupona' is especially erudite work in effective and sometimes witty language that explores the condition of the female. She is not a feminist but her work does generate a certain emotional response that is difficult to ignore. Here is what she had to say:

FVM: How supportive is your family of a career in art?

GM: Family can be anything that continues to give you support as and when you need it.  I like to define it as such. I am sure they were pleased each time when I received a prize for art both in primary and high school and then making it a choice at university. Then again they could have been frustrated to ululate only for art and not for Maths or English.  Then again it was cheap for them to have handmade Christmas decorations each year, out of bits of colorful paper or this and that. I had fun and still do for the sake of my kids. So I think the support was there, they allowed me to do so for a while. They then pressured me to become a teacher - obviously I taught art. Now they marvel and think what a brilliant daughter we have.  I have remained steadfast on this road and do not wish to be swayed in any way.

FVM: What are your thoughts on expressing sexuality?

GM: If I have understood your question well, I will try to answer in two ways or maybe 3. Will see. Sexuality continues to baffle me.  I am female very much and proud of it. But I was not prepared for one occasion in university at my very first nude drawing of the figure.  It took me a whole year to be comfortable and to allow this majestic male model to stand close and next to me to see what I had drawn.  I was 19. My marriage to a powerful artist and his continued use of sexuality as a means to his release and content, has shaped me to understand the whys and why nots. As artists we express how we feel, and what we see.  Our lives are on a platter, it’s not a performance but it is who we are.  My discovery of the dress and its meaning and the one who so cherished it and this dress now being in abundance as a second hand cloth has paved ways to make it easy to illustrate, express and convey my ideas to everyone. It still remains as a concept, with the hope that one day many will understand and remove its title as 'concept'.

FVM: How has your career been shaped?

GM: My career has not started, I feel I am still in the entry stage searching and questioning and finding one's purpose. Imagine if I am going to survive until the age of 80 and I begin to gloat now that I have a career, it will be foolish. I have more to learn and do.  Much more therefore my now is no way near from being defined as a career.

FVM: What does Village Unhu stand for in your art practice?

GM: Village Unhu is a collective created by artists for artists.  It is a massive resource centre that continues to feed you and you feeding from it.  It stands, for me, as a production space that teaches quality, self-discovery and being part of a collective setting instead of working as an individual and alone. It shows you the meaning of Unhu/Ubuntu!

FVM: What technique do you use?

GM: Technique - varied but largely influenced by materials used domestically by women in any setting. It’s not only for Zimbabweans but globally.

FVM:  Is the Zimbabwean art scene misogynistic in any way?

GM: Of course the atmosphere is misogynistic, always will be.  It deals with the needs of the immediate, who have become the men.

FVM: Would you classify yourself as a feminist?

GM: I feel as if this feminism issue continues to be blown out of proportion.  We can all stand our ground without much fuss or demonstration.  I actually believe we are more powerful.  I have discovered that allowing your work to do that for you is quite enough.  You are already showing your emotions, yourself, your hates and likes through your work, therefore good work will always do the action for you. Furthermore the writers who documented the male-orientated art history in Zimbabwe completely shunned the women. They cared little of what they are doing - making of clay pots, basket weaving, hair braiding, cloth making, and so forth to me are considered as an art form. Art remains relative, by choice of the viewer and those writers considered their feelings and choices when they documented all this stuff.

FVM:Tell me about your work ‘Kupona’. What does it mean?

GM: 'Kupona' was a difficult title to come by.  Originally the works when separated talk about several different issues of which I am most familiar with - miscarriage and need to be pregnant as a personal fulfillment and purpose, the 'Juju' and 'Muti' used to keep men/husbands in the household, self-beauty, cleansing and damage of the 'Muti' and lastly survival of a mother with hungry children of making do with what is available. The night dresses continue to be a question as to what happens when she is wearing this dress, silk, smooth and sensual.  I search for the past, the evidence that continues to be left behind for all of us to see hate and or marvel.

Georgina Maxim. Kupona 2015

Kupona detail

Georgina Maxim. Small world

Georgina Maxim. Work in progress

All images courtesy of the artist.

Georgina Maxim runs the artist collective Village Unhu founded by her and Misheck Masamvu and Gareth Nyandoro. Village Unhu is in Chisipite Harare