Zimbabwean-born, Cape Town-based artist Ronald Muchatuta is inviting visitors to reflect on memory, identity and belonging through Revisiting, his latest solo exhibition at HUB Gallery in Cape Town.
Running until Friday, July 31, the interactive exhibition combines handcrafted mosaics, found materials and AI-assisted sound compositions, encouraging visitors to experience art through both sight and sound.
Each artwork features a QR code that unlocks an original soundtrack, creating what Muchatuta describes as a conversation between tradition and technology.
"The balance lives within respecting what has come before and understanding that it's history, it's lineage, it's heritage," Muchatuta told CapeTowner. "You can't necessarily alter it; you can assist it so that it lives on," he said
He explains that artificial intelligence is not intended to replace cultural traditions but to help preserve and extend them for future generations.
"I use the tools that I use to expand the sound terrain, or even the visual terrain, but to keep the essence of what has come before."
For Muchatuta, the exhibition's title reflects a journey through culture and self.
"Revisiting means migration through sound, migration through history, and also migration through identity," he says. "It's using the materials that we have... or trying to use new tools like AI to preserve the lineages, or to preserve what has come before so that we can pass it on to the next generation."
The exhibition brings together beads, thread, mosaics and found objects, including traditional baskets and masks, with AI-generated sound inspired by African rhythmic traditions, electronic music and improvisation.
Rather than asking visitors to simply observe the artworks, Muchatuta hopes they'll leave with a deeper understanding of themselves.
"I hope people find themselves. Most of the sound and most of this material is not necessarily regional; it's continental. We should find ourselves and discover what it means to revisit for ourselves," he said.
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