Ini Natino

Notes

The present lot, Ini Natino, is inscribed on the reverse of the canvas with the word kuchekacheka, a term invented by the artist and central to his broader practice. It derives from the root word kucheka, meaning 'to cut'. In this work, Nyandoro employs the technique by cutting, re-arranging, duplicating and masking recycled paper materials to create a new composition. Rather than referring simply to the act of cutting, the term speaks to reusing materials, and in doing so, to redefining meaning: reinventing what it means to be, to survive and to thrive.

In the kuchekacheka process, paper is treated much like a printmaking matrix, comparable to a lino block, plate or woodblock, and is incised with a blade. Rather than pulling a printed impression and discarding the cut-away fragments, Nyandoro returns the paper 'waste' to the artwork itself, through a process of gluing, staining and layering. The act of naming the technique becomes part of its improvisational logic; the word itself is formed through reduplication, a pattern drawn from Harare street slang that mirrors the resourceful, adaptive logic of Zimbabwe's informal economy, which recurs throughout his imagery.¹

^1. Ruth Simbao and Masimba Hwati (2016) SMAC, Gareth Nyandoro: Juggling Skills, online, accessed 11 August 2026.