Mthabisi Phili, Citizens, Aliens and Rights, 2011
Etched aluminium panel and oil paint
47 x 58.5 cm (visible)
Condition: Good, with slight undulations around the perimeter of the work, lifting of paint in the middle section
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Mthabisi Phili (Zimbabwean, b. 1986) is a writer, critic and visual artist based in Bulawayo. He has been involved in the visual arts in Zimbabwe since 2002, and has published various publications internationally. In 2011, Phili founded Voices in Colour, an organisation whose mission is to "connect contemporary culture”. Throughout his work, healing, connecting, and nationalism are pervasive subject matters.
In this clever etching, the figures do not look like the typical incarcerated and the bars seem inadequate to restrict freedom. It is not immediately clear who the imprisoned are. Are we looking at them or are they looking at us?
(Photographed in February 2025)