Year: 2022
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 238 x 285 cm (93 3/4 x 112 1/4 in.)
Acquired from Goodman Gallery, 2022
This artwork is one of the four works featured at the Aichi Triennale 2022, which was created during the global lockdown. For Masamvu, an artist whose paintings constantly employ issues on social oppression and distress as motifs, the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the turmoil towards the Zimbabwean and has left an enormous impact on his works. The painting is filled with strong and vibrant colors and brushstrokes expressing the artist’s struggle, as if forcefully releasing the society conflict. Overlapping layers on the canvas exhibits intense energy, progressively obscuring the bottom layers. Masamvu’s paintings are both abstract and figurative. As one got used to these vibrant brushstrokes, the outlines of human figures emerged from the depths of the painting. The viewer’s attention is directed to the particularly white mass gathered among the impasto colors in the relatively central area of the painting. Outlines of human figures are faintly depicted by red lines in the white background. Although obscured, these may be traces depicting several human figures in postures of bending or sitting positions. This work, entitled “The Power of Running Away”, strongly implies the artist’s stance towards paintings. Literally “flee” from the uncontrollable, yet it could also be interpreted as “moving forward”, rather than holding back. As the philosophy of “Line of flight” described by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari - to take a detour route to avoid the difficulties and to try to carve out a new future, which is also an attempt Masamvu’s brushstrokes demonstrated and aimed for.
