PALINDROME – A Collaboration. Painting: Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure, Ekphrastic Poem: Marian Christie
Palindrome – the Process
Samantha:
This piece grew from a meditation on life’s cyclical nature… the way our experiences loop back on themselves, carrying both light and shadow in equal measure. I was struck by the idea that hope and sorrow are not opposites, but companions, and that their meeting point can be quietly luminous. The painting can be displayed either way up, echoing how perspective shifts the story we see. Whether the sun is rising or setting, the moment still holds beauty, reminding us that every ending carries the seed of a beginning.
Marian:
Samantha’s beautiful artwork invited me to reflect on symmetry, and hence on symmetry-breaking in the very early universe, a theoretical proposition to explain the glorious complexity of all matter – light, atoms, formations, life, dreams, imagination….
I wanted to suggest this cosmic element in my response, and to convey the painting’s energy, which is both contemplative and full of movement. The result is a palindrome by word that is shaped to mirror the flow of Samantha’s brushwork, with the sun as fulcrum between sky and earth, between the unknown and the known.
HOUSES OF STONE – Art: Samantha Rumbidzai, Poetry and Photography- Marian Christie
Mbira – a Collaboration: Marian Christie (Poem), Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure (Painting), Quinten Vazhure (Music)
Mbira: Spoken Word Version with Music : Samantha and Quentin
Samantha’s inspiration for the mbira painting:
This piece honours the nhare, a sacred type of mbira or thumb piano regarded in Shona tradition as a “telephone to the ancestors”. Of all the mbira families, the nhare resonates with me most deeply. The red-and-black patterned cloth (mucheka weRetso) traditionally signifies ancestral presence and pays homage to mbira masters. Its dotted motifs echo my love for pointillism, where each mark becomes a rhythmic pulse; an intimate vibration of memory and spiritual connection.
Marian’s thoughts on process:
The mbira is a deeply spiritual instrument that naturally integrates the four archetypal elements of Earth, Fire, Air and Water. Traditionally, the soundboard is made of wood from the mukwa tree, which flourishes in Zimbabwe’s red sandy loam and granite-derived soils. The iron tines are forged in fire. When the instrument is played, air resonates within the gourd to enrich and amplify the sound. The notes have a liquid quality, like the sound of rain or running water, as you can hear in Quinten’s mellifluous composition.
Bios: Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure, Marian Christie and Quinten Vazhure
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