Was your goal to present a new form of personal paradise?
I wouldn’t necessarily say that the idea is to put forth a whole new paradise, but rather to take note of the already existing ones and find joy and pleasure in them. I think that the paradises I have depicted in my paintings are and always were there, but never given much attention. The feeling of being relaxed and exhaled is very much present in these moments, which I think is what makes up “paradise” as I define it. I have reflected and depicted my own paradise and hope that the viewer does the same.
Scrolling (2021)
To define your paradise, you say that you need to take “awareness of the moments I often overlook.” Could you explain what these moments are?
For me, these moments are found in the most mundane activities, like getting lost in a novel, having a moment to put my feet up, dancing. Anything that is not too out of the ordinary, but that gives a feeling of exhale and leisure. These are the moments on which I have decided to focus and in which to find paradises.
Untitled (2021)
What does it take to stand out in today's world of black figurative painting?
I think as an artist in the way I engage with what is happening in the art world or world at large while still being very much driven by the internal. I work and speak in a manner that reflects my thoughts and experiences and find that it is not only myself that is thinking and experiencing in that way. Bringing in my perspective and own gathering could possibly be what makes my work unique to me just as every other artist's work is unique to them regardless of similarities of genres and styles of painting.
Ode to Rousseau II (2021)
Zandile Tshabalala - Enter Paradise, 25 February - 18 April 2021 | ADA \ Contemporary Art Gallery, Accra Ghana
Top: February Flowers (2021)
