There are times when Zimbabwe and Africa must come together, unite as a people, and discuss the relevant issues of our day. Here at #ENTHUSE, we often discuss premier arts, culture, heritage, lifestyle and other weightier topics, but today we need to sit down and take a moment to address Netherland-based Zimbabwean songstress and exhibitionist Vimbai Zimuto’s sultry and prolific photos.
For a couple of years now, the unapologetic enchantress behind the absorbing and taboo-defying Vimbaitude Photographic Art Exhibition has been sharing nonconformist and highfalutin nude pictures of herself on her social platforms. Iconic as they are, the pictures have made controversy her second name, and she loves and lives it.
To her, what you call distasteful, demeaning and indecorous visual representation is “art”.
In March last year, in the wake of the tragic crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet that claimed 157 people from three dozen nations, the Kurunga-singer used a sullen au naturel picture to send a condolence message to the victims. Myriad questions were asked: Why wasn’t she wearing any clothes? Our society is too hung up on nudity, and the human body is a beautiful thing, but why is she covering her breasts? Also, in some of her nude pictures why is she wearing panties if the human body is so beautiful? And what about the photoshopping away of the stretch marks?
Although many concluded that her gesture was an ill-advised publicity stunt at most, she defended her actions, telling the NewsDay“s Winstone Antonio that;
“That photo symbolises the feeling of a person who has just lost their loved one; that emptiness, and that feeling where you lose your senses because you’ve lost the most important person in your life. You feel stripped of everything that you have. You feel destroyed, crushed, hit like a nail by a hammer.”
For Vimbai, who identifies as a musician, model, dancer, choreographer, writer, actress and film director, her work and art are inspired by her grandmother and it is about “the boldness of an African goddess who has no apologies for being herself”.
“Black women are judged in the world for their hair, skin, body structure, beauty and so forth. [However] when they see natural black women being so proud they feel challenged, frustrated and tickled because that is one thing our ancestors had and were robbed of. My Africa-ness is more powerful and is something money can’t buy,” said Vimbai, who is raising two beautiful daughters, Keisha and Katie.
Nude art is the purest art there is from body art, she said, and only the open-minded few who choose to see beyond the nakedness can feel the emotions, expressions, anger, happiness, sadness, weakness and truth embedded in it.
Now, to understand Vimbai’s work, one needs to have an overall appreciation of nude photography and art. We cover our bodies with clothes most of the time, yet few subjects are more synonymous with art or beauty than the nude human form.
The human body has always been one of the principal subjects of inspiration for artists. In the beginning, the male nude was very popular in antiquity, especially among the Greeks, but today the fashion has reversed and it is the female body that is highlighted in particular in nude art photography.
From young men with physiques like Michaelangelo’s “David” to women posed artfully in black and white or colour, nude photographs can essentially grace the most intimate, or the most public, spaces in your home. A collection of nudes lets you show visitors to your home how beautiful the human body is.
As our fight against boredom and idleness that comes with observing twenty-one days of lockdown to flatten the COVID-19 curve continues, we have set aside a selection of Vimbai’s nude photos that we believe are iconic.
Come and discover.
Visit Vimbai’s gallery for more pictures.
