Deaf artist Raymond Fuyana’s surrealist exhibition Beyond the Board, is a bridge between the deaf and the hearing

.Beyond the Board Is at 5, Third Avenue, Parkhurst, and runs till 6 December 2024.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

Attending and viewing deaf artist Raymond Fuyana’s exhibitions is always a pleasurable experience. This is because this surrealist artist’s art practice makes it easy for one to appreciate surreal art, and not just because he has a rare skill of making art using bold colours that touch you, make you feel and experience the magic of his work, but also because of the beautiful stories embedded in and carried by his art installations.

His exhibitions always induce a sense of feeling good, a sense of inspiration and an atmosphere of positivity in the gallery. He is also a confident speaker who is able to represent his ideas and is able to articulate these to an audience using a sign language interpreter.

This is why on Saturday, November 23, 2024, I found myself with a group of other people congregating around him and his interlocutor, writer and author David Mann at Guns & Rain Gallery where there was a walkabout of his latest exhibition with the Parkhurst based gallery in Johannesburg. The conversation between Raymond and Mann was not only intelligent and intelligible, but also a pleasurable experience.

Through the conversation, Raymond was able to take us through his exhibition, his childhood growing up in Plumtree in Zimbabwe and his life in Johannesburg, having come here a while ago to attend a School for the Deaf, before taking printmaking lessons at Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg. However, his current art interest is painting, as a self-taught painter.

“Printmaking tends to be limiting in that I do not get to use bright colours as much as I would love to, but instead the process loses them. But at times I still go back and add colour whenever I do print making,” he explained.

In this body of work, the viewer gets to follow and revel in the rather interesting childhood stories, told beautifully through the theme of a game of chess, a game that he had to teach himself how to play as a child growing up back home.

This body of work, therefore could be said to be autobiographical at several levels. For example, in one giant piece that faces you as you enter the gallery, you will notice a figure of a young man, seated and hunched. He is surrounded by beautiful natural colours in this frame. That is Raymond. In other pieces, embedded in theme, you will also notice a motif of sneakers. These, he explained are a memorial journey of the sneakers that his dad used to buy him as a child and when worn out, he would then plant something in them. In these art works, you will also notice a recurring motif of a map, and this is not a country’s map, but an environmental map, that tries

to conscientize people about the relationship between human beings and the natural world. We need each other and we need to co-exist, his message is clear and loud.

Raymond is clearly in love with the green colour among others. He has used it liberally in this body of work that constitutes this exhibition, which rounds up the exhibition programme for the gallery for 2024. What a wonderful and thoughtful way of winding the year for Guns & Rain.

However, beyond the façade of games, there is a serious message the artist is trying to send out there, something quite important personally for the artist at different levels. To start with, although he has participated in several group exhibitions in South Africa, Beyond the Board is Raymond’s first solo exhibition in South Africa.

For the artist board games level the playing field between the deaf and the hearing.

“Guns & Rain is pleased to present Raymond Fuyana’s first solo exhibition Beyond the Board. Fuyana relocated to South Africa in 2009 to attend St Vincent School for the Deaf, where he learned Sign Language. Trained as a printmaker at Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg, Fuyana is also a self-taught painter inspired by Surrealism. Fuyana finds games to be a powerful equalizer between the deaf and the hearing. Strategic games like chess and board games, with their reliance on visual elements and interactive mechanics, dismantle barriers, allowing for meaningful interactions that transcend spoken language,” the curators state.

What this means in reality is that through these games, Raymond uncovers opportunities to engage with multiple environments and experiences, enhancing both his connections with others and his own internal reflections.

The concept of ‘beyond the board’, extends far beyond the realm of games. In his art, Raymond employs doors as a metaphor to visually represent playfulness and chance, and his ability to gain access or be denied entry to various levels—both within the games he plays and in his relationship with the surrounding natural world. His paintings transform these themes into vivid dreamscapes, where imagination and reality intertwine in a vibrant interplay of colour and form, and where there are no limitations on time or space.

Clearly Raymond is an artist to watch out for as his profile keeps on growing and is on an upward trajectory.

In 2023, Fuyana held his first European solo show with Duende Art Projects in Antwerp, Belgium, and made his international art fair debut at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London, later that year. He also participated in his first group museum exhibition at the Nitja Centre for Contemporary Art in Norway. In September this year Guns & Rain showcased Fuyana in a solo booth at Art Joburg titled Regular Time. Fuyana’s work will also be featured at the Toledo Art Museum, Ohio, USA in the exhibition Strategic Interplay: African Art and Imagery in Black and White, opening also this November.

“Guns & Rain is grateful for the assistance of interpreter Sarah Klaas and the support of Nenio Mbazima at the Centre for Deaf Studies at Wits University,” the gallery states.

About Guns& Rain

The gallery is a member of the African Art Galleries Association (AAGA) and the Association of Women Art Dealers (AWAD). We also collaborate with universities and have hosted artists and multiple interns from the University of Johannesburg and University of Oxford.

The name ‘Guns & Rain’ comes from the work of South African-born British anthropologist and playwright David Lan, who wrote about guerrillas and spirit mediums in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. Lan’s work is concerned with culture, identity, land, struggle, change, and other important African themes that also inform the curatorial focus and programme of the gallery.

.Beyond the Board Is at 5, Third Avenue, Parkhurst, and runs till 6 December 2024.