A dog's life
Subverting the convenient narrative.
By Nyadzombe Nyampenza
It looks like a pooch whose bark is bigger than its bite. The kind that wakes up big dogs from their bored slumber. Johnson Zuzes’ Watch Dog is a true canine in spirit. In form it is reality from a deviated perspective.
The dog is framed from wire and filled with found objects. Walking around the three dimensional piece brings a sense of recognition. The bits seem to have come back from the dump to haunt those who used, broke, and discarded them. Some bits read like random words and phrases. Inclusion of colorful objects draws the eye. The dog’s pricked ears, and erect curved tail, signal heightened attention. Its stiffened legs are in a combative stance.
Zuze’s work could be read as noble repurposing of trash. People in Harare collect trash for recycling, to make ends meet. Not out of a socially engaged need to save the environment. Artists in Harare operate from the same dire economic situation. To imagine Johnson on a crusade to save the earth may be convenient for some, and a stretch to others. His use of found objects is an invention not entirely born out of necessity.
The Watch Dog can be an allegory for those who have been erased by poverty. An illumination of their spectral existence. Their invisible lives become visible, cobbled together from used, broken, and discarded pieces.
