Berry Bickle Explained

Berry Bickle
Birth Place:	Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe)
Nationality:	Zimbabwean, Mozambique
Field:	installation art, Conceptual art, sculpture
Training:	Durban Institute of Technology, Rhodes University
Awards:	Rockefeller Foundation Creative Arts Fellow, 2010

Berry Bickle (born 1959) is a Zimbabwean artist who resides in Maputo. Born in Bulawayo, Bickle attended the Chisipite Senior School in Harare. Later, she attended the Durban Institute of Technology, where she obtained a national diploma in fine arts,^[1] and South Africa's Rhodes University, where she obtained a master's degree in fine arts.^[2] Bickle was a founding member of Bulawayo's Visual Artists' Association.^[3]

She divides her time between Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and her work explores the region's history of colonialism.^[4] In 1988, she and Tapfuma Gutsa organised the Pachipamwe workshop, the first Triangle Art Trust workshop organised in Africa.^[5] In 2010 she became a Rockefeller Foundation Creative Arts Fellow^[6] and she works at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center on the series Suite Europa.

Work

Berry Bickle is a multimedia artist who works in installation, video, photography, and ceramics.^[7] Her works are generally installations, and are mixed media works which incorporate script; some include video and photography. Bickle has collaborated closely with the Zimbabwean ceramicist, Marjorie Wallace. She has collaborated with the Peruvian artist Adrian Velasquez.The exhibition and the publication Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art^[8] highlight the presence of texts in Bickle's work and the importance of the act of writing and of collecting words; in this frame, the artist labels her work "Re-Writes".^[9]

• "Maputo Utopias" series.^[10]
• Suite Europa, 2010. The series was produced during a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center.
• Sleeping beauty, 2008
• Cyrene
• Inheritance lost library
• Wandering
• Sarungano
• Pessoa bowls series

Exhibitions

Berry Bickle's work is exhibited internationally. In 2011, Bickle represented Zimbabwe at the Venice Biennale, at the time a rare appearance for an African nation.^[11] The Zimbabwean Pavilion, which was curated by Raphael Chikukwa, was titled "Seeing Ourselves".

• Zimbabwe/Tanzania: contemporary artists, Helsinki, 1993.
• 5th Havana Biennalle, Cuba, 1994.
• First Johannesburg Africus Biennale, 1995.
• On the Road, Africa95, London, England, 1995.
• MBCA-Decade of Award Winners, National Gallery, Harare, 1996.
• Artists against landmines, Franco/Mozambique Cultural Centre, Maputo, 1999.
• World Video Festival, Gates Foundation, Amsterdam, 1999.
• Artistes contemporains du Zimbabwe, Pierre Gallery, Paris, 1999.
• Women in African Art, Vienna, 1999.
• 2001 El tiempo de Africa, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Gran Canaria "Siyaphambili-2000," National Gallery, Harare, 2001.
• Art dans le Monde, Paris, 2001.
• Africas: The Artist and the City: A Journey and an Exhibition, Barcelona, Spain, 2002.
• Afrika Remix – Zeitgenössische Kunst eines Kontinents – Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, 2004.
• Visions of Zimbabwe – Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester (England), 2004.
• Africa Remix, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2005.
• Textures – Word & Symbol in Contemporary African Art – National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, 2005.^[12]
• Africa Remix – Contemporary Art of a Continent – Hayward Gallery, London (England), 2005.
• Body of Evidence (Selections from the Contemporary African Art Collection) – National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, 2006.
• Africa Remix – Contemporary Art of a Continent – Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2006.
• 7ème Biennale de l'Art Africain contemporain – Dak'Art Biennale de l'art africain contemporain, exhibition curated by N'Goné Fall in the frame of the individual exhibitions, Dakar, 2006.
• Annual MUSART – Museu Nacional de Artes (MUSART), Maputo, 2007.
• Exit11, Limited edition Part 1 – Exit11, Grand-Leez, 2007.
• Africa Remix – Contemporary art of a continent – Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Johannesburg, 2007.
• L'oeil-Écran Ou La Nouvelle Image – Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain, Luxembourg, 2007.
• Exit11, Exhibition 02 – Collective exhibition – Exit11, Grand-Leez, 2007.
• Videozone 4 – Videozone – International Video-Art Biennial, Tel Aviv, 2008.
• Ifa-Galerie Berlin, Berlin, 2008.^[10]
• Chance encounters – Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 2008.
• Animais: Caracterização e Representação – Museu Nacional de Artes (MUSART), Maputo, 2008.
• Chance Encounters – Seven Contemporary Artists from Africa – Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos (CCA, Lagos), Lagos, 2009.
• Maputo: A Tale of One City – Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, 2009.
• Biennale di Venezia – 54th International Art Exhibition, Pavilion of Zimbabwe, exhibition Seeing Ourselves curated by Raphael Chikukwa, Venice, 2011.
• The Divine Comedy. Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, 2014 Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt am Main.^[13]

See also

• Zimbabwean art

Bibliography

• Gaël Teicher, Berry Bickle: plasticienne, Editions de l'Oeil, Paris, 2008.
• "A carta de Gaspar Vezoso I : TZR studies a painting by Berry Bickle", Zimbabwean Review 3 (2), April–June 1997: 1–2.
• A. J. Chennells, "Empire's offspring" in Gallery: the art magazine from Gallery Delta (7 March 1996): 3–6
• Peter S. Garlake, "Memory, mischief and magic in the country of my heart" in Gallery: the art magazine from Gallery Delta (17 September 1998): 22–25.
• Helen Lieros, "Earthãwaterãfire, recent works by Berry Bickle" in Gallery: the art magazine from Gallery Delta (11 March 1997): 20–21.
• Pierre-Laurent Sanner, "Berry Bickle" in Revue Noire 28 (March–April–May), 1998: 224–227.

External links

• Berry Bickle's website
• Galleries of Berry Bickle's works

Notes and References

1. Web site: " ARTISTS " Berry Bickle. Kulungwana. 19 May 2012. Staff. 2009.
2. Web site: Berry Bickle b. Zimbabwe, 1959. Textures – Word and symbol in contemporary African art. National Museum of African Art/Smithsonian Institution. 19 May 2012. Staff. 2012.
3. Book: Magee, Carol. 2000-02-21. Oxford University Press. Oxford Art Online. 10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t096497.
4. Simbao. Ruth. Chikukwa. Raphael. Ogonga. Jimmy. Bickle. Berry. Pereira. Marie Hélène. Altass. Dulcie Abrahams. Chikowero. Mhoze. Fall. N'Goné. June 2018. Zimbabwe Mobilizes: ICAC's Shift from Coup de Grăce to Cultural Coup. African Arts. en. 51. 2. 4–17. 10.1162/afar_a_00399. 0001-9933. free.
5. Pachipamwe International Artists' Workshop is held annually in Zimbabwe between 1988 and 1994. Set of images of the workshop.
6. Web site: Berry Bickle. Rockefeller Foundation – Innovation for the next 100 years. The Rockefeller Foundation. 19 May 2012. Staff. 2010. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120501192703/http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/bellagio-center/profiles/berry-bickle. 1 May 2012. dmy-all.
7. Sterling. Beverley. July–August 2008. BERRY BICKLE: LOST WORDS NATIONAL GALLERY OF ZIMBABWE, HARARE APRIL 2008. Ceramic Review. 232.
8. Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art, curated by Christine Mullen Kreamer, Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney, Allyson Purpura, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 2007.
9. Berry Bickle, Re-Writes in Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art, curated by Chistine Mullen Kreamer, Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney, Allyson Purpura, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 2007, p. 227-229; in particular the text refers to the works Wandering, Sarungano, Pessoa bowls series.
10. Melancholia from the series "Maputo Utopias", 2007 on IFA gallery website Web site: IFA: Berry Bickle . 2011-06-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110403081427/http://www.ifa.de/en/exhibitions/dt/past-exhibitions/2008/bamako-2007/berry-bickle/ . 3 April 2011 . dmy .
11. News: Meldrum. Andrew. June 3, 2011. Zimbabwean artists featured at Venice Biennale - Zimbabwean paintings, videos, sculpture and photos displayed in Venice festival.. Global Post.
12. News: WICKOUSKI. Sheila. February 24, 2005. Ruscha-What's in a word? - Two exhibits, one at the National Gallery of Art and one at the National Museum of African Art, center around the written word.. Free Lance-Star.
13. Web site: Divine Comedy . Kerber Verlag. 2014-12-02 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140322174354/http://www.kerberverlag.com/en/contemporary_art/divine_comedy/product-2930.html . 22 March 2014 . dmy-all .