Annabelle Pfende
What would you do if these crackers were real pistols? was created by the Indonesian artist FX Harsono. This artwork was made as a political statement in response to the Indonesian president Suharto. President Suharto was a dictator, and his 34 years in power were a difficult time for many Indonesians.
As I am half Zimbabwean, I have seen what the effects of a dictatorship can do to a country. I was inspired by FX Harsono’s message and decided to use Zimbabwe's own dictator, Robert Mugabe as inspiration for my own work. In my own artwork, I used a sponge to create a textured brown background, which was based on my own photos of the earth in Zimbabwe. Across the centre of my artwork is a series of squares in blood-red tones, cutting through the earth. This represents a country being torn and destroyed at the hands of a unstoppable, powerful force..This signifies the pain and suffering of everyone in Zimbabwe who has had their life savings seemingly disappear, and been left behind to deal with the sky-high costs of food and petrol, as well as massive fuel, power and water shortages. All of these problems are linked to the hyperinflation caused by Mugabe. This is seen in my artwork where, contrasting to the squares, green M’s can be seen. These M’s stand for Mugabe, and the green is a approximation of the green found on the $500 ZWD note.
From my research, I found that during the observation period from 1980 to 2021, the average inflation rate was 686.4% per year. This is represented through the 68 squares across the painting. Painted in the pistol-cracker pink, the number thirty seven illustrates the thirty seven (1980 - 21 November 2017) years of Mugabe’s time in power. When we viewed the What would you do if these crackers were real pistols? exhibition, we saw that with the pistols, a simple desk with a notebook and pen was placed in every gallery the artwork has travelled to. Back when president Suharto was in power, the citizens of Indonesia didn’t have any free speech or power.
In FX Harsono’s artwork, he challenges this by providing people with an anonymous way of expressing their true emotions. Sadly, Zimbabweans didn’t have this option. So in my artwork, in the bottom left corner, i have repeated the shona word ‘Tinovimba’ which means we have faith, to represent the breach of trust in their leader. Through my piece, I aim to spread awareness for the suffering of different countries due to dictators.