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Tafadzwa Zimoyo Entertainment Reporter
Top local renowned art personalities have collaborated to bring Zimbabwean women musicians into the spotlight in a first ever cross discipline between art and music.

These include a portrait artist, a music critic and top photographer and they have produced a music project titled “The Womb of the Song” – an anthology, critique and history of Zimbabwean contemporary women musicians in word, vision and sound.

In an interview with The Herald Entertainment, the brains behind the project, Dr Tony Monda he said was happy that the project is finally taking shape after months of research and analysis.

Mhonda has collaborated with portrait artist Hermit Muyambo, photographer Tatenda Gomo and designer and editor Michelina Andreucci-Ponter. “This unique project will capture and record the soul of women’s music, personalities and history through photography, art and written word in order to re animate, preserve and record the history of these musical icons in perpetuity. We hope to work with other women artists to give this project its rightful feminine character and national importance,” he said.

“It is important that Zimbabwean artists from different disciplines interact and synchronize their various skills in order to produce well researched, world class publications and visual documentaries that contextualize our contemporary cultural history timeously,” he said.

He said the project will also include an illustrated book, photographed portraits and photographic exhibition.

“We have been researching the life of over 70 women musicians since 2008 and we are happy with what we found from the chosen selection. We will host an exhibition which will include a photo gallery and a DVD,” said Monda.

Portrait artist Hermit has been working on a project to capture and record the memoirs of prominent Zimbabwean personalities for a solo exhibition which will portray their life in imagery. “The solo-exhibition will be entitled, ‘Zimbabwean Icons- an Exhibition of Prominent Zimbabwean Personalities and will tell a story of those involved without any word. It is not actually new as I have worked on a similar project in South Africa back in 2009,” he said.

For the musical project “The Womb of the Song”, Muyambo has been studying and sketching preparatory portraits of chosen women, while celebrity art photographer Gomo used the camera as a painter, brushing the social and cultural realm of documentary photography.

“In Zimbabwe photograph is growing art form. It has the ability to capture the sweat and glamour of musicians and portray the passion of their art,” he said.

The project is aimed at helping foster the memory and muses of the women’s contribution to culture, art and music in Zimbabwe.