Artwork

Kachingwe Tea Dispatch

2023 Competition entry

Detail
Tags

Marcus Chigawa

Details:
Unclear
Acrylic on panel
60.9cm x 76.2cm
R7 500.00
Description:
Families are like roots and branches on a tree. We grow in different “routes” yet our roots can always be traced back to one place.

As a child and even to this day, I have fond memories of travelling from town to visit my grandmother in the countryside of Thyolo, Malawi. Along the road, the slopes of the green tea valleys would twist and wind all throughout the trip and reminded me of topographic veins and roots. The fields always stood out to me.

Kachingwe Tea Dispatch is a reflection and a sentiment to the land and heritage that makes me. Each individual leaf (the effort it took me to paint and also the effort it takes tea workers to cultivate) represents my lineage and its many roots. The heaviness of the bags further reinforces the effort to uphold this lineage and what it took to cultivate it.

Malawi is the second biggest tea producer in Africa and also the biggest employer sector for manual labour. The tea industry emphasizes handcrafted, skilled work rather than machinery. This skilled work is passed down by elders in the community and is crucial to the heritage of the tea industry. The metallic texture of the workers is used to symbolise that of machines as they have become the machinery.

The road in the far distance is the main road that leads to my Grandmother’s village. With 8 children, my grandmother, like many others, is the major root of the family; everything and everyone traces back to her. Like many others and me, we tend to forget our values, beliefs and identity. My little brother (wearing yellow) is shown holding up the leaves as if to say “ here… these are my roots”.

Acrylic

Detail
Tags

Marcus Chigawa

Details:
Unclear
Acrylic on panel
60.9cm x 76.2cm
R7 500.00

Description:
Families are like roots and branches on a tree. We grow in different “routes” yet our roots can always be traced back to one place.

As a child and even to this day, I have fond memories of travelling from town to visit my grandmother in the countryside of Thyolo, Malawi. Along the road, the slopes of the green tea valleys would twist and wind all throughout the trip and reminded me of topographic veins and roots. The fields always stood out to me.

Kachingwe Tea Dispatch is a reflection and a sentiment to the land and heritage that makes me. Each individual leaf (the effort it took me to paint and also the effort it takes tea workers to cultivate) represents my lineage and its many roots. The heaviness of the bags further reinforces the effort to uphold this lineage and what it took to cultivate it.

Malawi is the second biggest tea producer in Africa and also the biggest employer sector for manual labour. The tea industry emphasizes handcrafted, skilled work rather than machinery. This skilled work is passed down by elders in the community and is crucial to the heritage of the tea industry. The metallic texture of the workers is used to symbolise that of machines as they have become the machinery.

The road in the far distance is the main road that leads to my Grandmother’s village. With 8 children, my grandmother, like many others, is the major root of the family; everything and everyone traces back to her. Like many others and me, we tend to forget our values, beliefs and identity. My little brother (wearing yellow) is shown holding up the leaves as if to say “ here… these are my roots”.

Acrylic