LIZETTE CHIRRIME

EUR 7,500 + VAT

Finding Balance, 2018

Mixed media

180 x 170 cm

About this work

This spirit-like figure comes from Cherrime’s dreams. She incorporates them on the understanding that they are messengers sent by her ancestors. “Traditionally”, she says, “we belonged to a royal family – but we no longer hold this title. I do believe that my ancestors use me to express whatever they need to say.” Here Cherime commends balance, which she seeks in the psyche and with nature: ‘In a sense, a woman is a soul that bears a fruit called the human’, she explains. ‘If the soul is neglected, so too the soil bears disconnected fruit… Nature, beauty, life, and death: they are all interconnected.’

LIZETTE CHIRRIME BIOGRAPHY

Self-taught Lizette Chirrime (born Maputo, Mozambique, 1973) grew up regarding art as her therapy. She creates large-scale textile-driven works on canvas in her studio in Cape Town, collaging typical African fabrics to make a patchwork of shapes which coalesce into figures which are at once mystical, lively, and intense. She speaks directly to her inspiration: ‘These abstract forms evoke the human body and my identity-responsive practice where I refashion my self-image and transcend a painful upbringing that left me shattered and broken. I literally ‘re-stitched’ myself together. These liberated ‘souls’ are depicted ‘dancing’ on the canvas…’