Mashavi 2 (SM006)

 Size: 841 x 594

Material: Fine Art paper on Aluminium Dibond Print

Limited edition: 10 prints

Mashavi was developed to interrogate what it means to be a practising Black artist in the western art world. In Shona culture ideas of consciousness are underpinned by the concept of spirit. Wondering spirits of people who died far from home are referred to as ‘shavi’. These spirits are able to possess the living and can influence their lives in a positive or negative way. 

Shavi Reschizungu refers to a white person’s spirit, when one is possessed by such a spirit the host imitates a European way of life. The word ‘Mashavi’ is the plural of shavi and indicates the presence of more than one spirit or points to a duality within the individual psyche. The shavi (or spirit) represents a splitting of the psyche in reference to W.E.B Dubois’s notion of double consciousness.