U ALUWA ( 2025 )

U ALUWA (2025)

Photography

Husi ini nga duvha luthihi lini — it does not happen in a single day.

U Aluwa (to grow) reflects on growth as a lived, ongoing process one that unfolds gradually, often without immediate recognition. The proverb resists urgency, reminding us that becoming is not a singular event, but a continuous state of transition.

In this work, growth is approached through both time and return. By drawing from a body of work created in 2021, the image establishes a dialogue between past and present not as comparison, but as acknowledgment. It becomes a way of measuring distance without fixing it, of recognising change while accepting that the process remains incomplete.

The presence of the body, held in stillness, suggests introspection rather than arrival. The closed eyes withdraw from the external world, redirecting attention inward. This inward gaze aligns with the surrounding environment, where organic elements grass, wildflowers, and natural textures begin to occupy the space around and in front of the subject. Rather than acting as backdrop, these elements become part of the figure’s immediate condition, suggesting that growth is not isolated, but entangled with one’s environment.

Green operates as a central force within the work. It carries associations of renewal, life, and quiet transformation, but here it is not presented as a resolved symbol. Instead, it creates an atmosphere one that feels dense, immersive, and ongoing. The colour does not announce growth; it holds it in suspension.

Within the context of Sedza Zwau, U Aluwa marks a shift from confrontation to reflection. It is less concerned with direction, and more with duration the understanding that growth cannot be rushed, measured too precisely, or fully seen while it is still taking place.

The work does not present transformation as a visible outcome. Instead, it asks the viewer to sit within the process to recognise that becoming often happens quietly, and that what is unfolding may only be understood with time.