YVONNE MUINDE

Between Righteousness and Racism.

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Between Righteousness and racism

Oil on canvas 48”x48 “ 2017

To say that this painting was hard to paint is the biggest understatement since someone said politicians don’t lie. This painting has been 18 years in the making and it is based off a conversation that my partner started with a simple question, “What lies between Righteousness and Racism?” My mind took it to the simplest of images but the hard part was trying to convey an image that said more than I could see while saying all that I needed and wanted to say, while still adding the imagery and scenario that could represent the conclusions other people, once queried with the same question, would eventually come to. I don’t need to input current affairs here as this is something that has gone on from the second we all realised the differences in some that separate us and the similarities which, oddly enough, unite us.

Eyes of monsters

oil on canvas 2018 6 panels 8"x12"

When I developed the concept for this painting I asked myself how the people who become our leaders can sleep at night when the actions they take can hurt so many. Is it a special ‘evil’ gene they carry or is it the obsessive desire of power, when combined with politics, special interest and money that drives them to a place that start them on the path of being the monsters that they all seem to eventually become? We the people put leaders in power. Yet, so many times they become the leaders we despise and don’t want but once they have a taste of power they will do anything to keep it. So then the question becomes is it our inability as human beings to lead well when we acquire so much power that sends us down the monsters path? These so called leaders drunk with power talk of nuking a whole country , starving their own people, killing indiscriminately and eventually we see them become what we the people were desperately trying to keep out of our homes, our lives, our countries. With that power how righteous they become and somehow that righteous path leads to a racist and oppressive one. Is it that politics has become such a convoluted chess game? A game where not one individual in politics has the desire or the will to tap into the basic moral values that we all are born with. As I painted this I knew that unfortunately this series is endless. I have so many missing. Leaders who lead apartheid regimes, the manipulators of the voting systems to maintain corrupt governments, those others that are pillaging countries coffers for their own benefit while hundreds of thousands starve.The thing that the monster hasn't thought about yet though is, once we the people are no more then which monster becomes the hunter and which one becomes the hunted? I guess for that answer they only have to look each other in the eyes. The eyes of monsters.
(N0. 45, Assad, Putin, Kim Jong-un, Duterte, Mugabe)

If Only We Were Bulletproof

Oil on canvas 36”x24 “ 2017

I could start this by inserting any number of the people of colour, men, women or children, gunned down but instead I really just want to keep this short and ask you one simple question. Just now when I used the phrase, “people of colour”, did you shut down, rile up, get angry or sad or did you just forget that white is a colour too? Granted the target seems to have a preference for the black and brown bodies and like I said white is a colour too, but when was the last time someone who was not black was gunned down while in handcuffs, perceived as a threat when walking away and shot repeatedly until 16 rounds found there way in just another black body? I wish the title of this painting could become our reality because, if we were bullet proof, then maybe those with the power and the guns would stop shooting and start talking, really talking, instead.

Oil on canvas 30x24 2017
How far will you go to fit in. What “alterations” would you make to be accepted by the empowered and in power majority? Some protest, some fight hoping to achieve that moment where it shakes those who see themselves as “supreme” over others, to wake up and see us all as equal, as they wear the skin that is the most paraded throughout social media, movies and entertainment padded with a privilege that others are not privy to possessing as there skin does not allow such a luxury. The young lady in the mirror is at a crossroad. Look at the painting. What do you see? What do you think she sees? Now ask yourself, if that were you in the mirror faced with the same dilemma with the script flipped against you, how far would you go to fit in?

Searching for Faith

Oil on canvas 18”x18 “ 2014

In a world where religion drives policy and politics how do you know which faith it is that is truly the right one for you? When you find yourself at the point of searching so hard and every where you turn everyone sells their faith as “The right one.” “The good one.” “The one that keeps my country safe and our people pure.” When the truth is the only thing you are searching for is the one thing we all want but know deep down will never come. True peace and good will to all man and woman kind.

Beautiful black

Oil on canvas 34” x49” 2014

The colour spectrum of humanity knows many hues and beauty lives in each one. I make that clarification so that you hopefully can see my point when I say I am not saying that only black is beautiful, but as mentioned before the entire spectrum possess beauty and that is what I hope you take away from this. The woman in the painting is a beautiful Kenyan whose inner and outer beauty are so perfectly balanced that once you know her you find yourself lost in her ever watching eyes and if I could have found a way to capture the genuine kindness that is her voice in this painting, well then you would be swimming in a kindness that this millenniums society has forgotten how to be.

30" x 40" oil on canvas, 2011
In late 2009 I listened to a radio conversation that, for me, was difficult to sit through yet painfully eye opening. The topic, "Rape and Brutality in the Democratic Republic of the Congo." As I listened the point that kept standing out the most was, that without addressing what happens to the children of the violent actions perpetrated upon women in the Congo that, it is often these children born of brutality which eventually become the soldiers that created the conditions that continue the circle of violence that brought about their existence in the first place. In the middle of this painting you may see simply a small newborn drapped in a flag or you may realize that as uncomfortable as it is to accept, you could be viewing the never ending circle of violence.