Young artist falls in love with Zimbabwe

?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />LONDON – Janie Rudloff, a third year art student at Roehampton University, has dedicated her final project to Zimbabwe after a visit there in August 2005.

“My trip was absolutely amazing. It made me realise why so many Zimbabweans living in London are so attached to their home country and why their desire to go back is so strong, despite the difficulties they have to face,” Janie told The Zimbabwean this week.

“I want to use my work to visualize this unique bond and use positive imagery to represent Zimbabwe,” she said.

Growing-up in Germany and studying in England, Janie was influenced deeply by the media and often confronted with negative coverage. But she soon learned to appreciate that this was only one side of the coin of life.

She believes that the negative power of the media must be challenged at every opportunity, and is determined to use her art project to make a difference to the way Zimbabwe is perceived.

For the project she asked two Zimbabwean friends to give her a few personal objects, photographs, letters, books, jewellery, statues… something they have treasured, that reminded them of home. Using scanned images of these objects she created photographs, bringing together these treasured items and evoking the passion her friends feel for their home country.

Janie would like to contact other Zimbabweans to participate in extending the project. “Changing the way Africa is represented in the west lies in our hands and I would like to invite other Zimbabweans to join the project and contact me in order to make a difference,” she said. – E.mail: Nutella_24@web.de, mobile: 07792169861. web-address: www.janierudloff.de