Collection: 'Feso, A Thorn In The Flesh' - Patrick Bongoy & Ronald Muchatuta

Feso, A Thorn In The Flesh
Patrick Bongoy & Ronald Muchatuta
10/18/2018 - 11/30/2018

Scattered across the African bush the Feso hides amongst the grasses and only reveals it’s presence through unexpected pain when stepping directly onto it. Translated from Shona, Feso means “The Devils Thorn”; named for its two distinct horn-like protrusions and it’s sly, ambush-like tactics. Zimbabwean artist Ronald Muchatuta and Congolese artist Patrick Bongoy have come to regard Colonialism as an emotional Feso embedded in the psyche of African people across the continent.

“With this body of work I will be taking a close look at the conditioning and inheritance of the children of the African Soil and the issues and adversities that are consequence of our post-colonial narratives as Africans” - Ronald Muchatuta

“My work speaks in response to the global reality of literal and figurative environmental pollution. This encompasses the entire spectrum from the erosion of economic viability, the impact on community and individual behaviour and socio cultural decay of the rural and urban landscape”
- Patrick Bongoy

Both artists now live and work in Cape Town and draw from their own migratory and lived experiences of post-colonial African spaces. Through their creative practice to unpack the long-lasting and painful effects of colonialism they wish to remove the feso from the flesh of modern-day African society.