Today on the podcast we talk to Helen Teede, a Zimbabwean artist. It’s a big episode on creative practice and its cyclical nature, the mysteries of paint, the imperative driving the vocation to be an artist and all the reasons why we shouldn’t and challenging the patriarchy. 

Helen has been dividing her time between Venice and Harare  for the past five years and has had solo and group shows internationally in spaces and arts fairs including the Paris Internationale, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art, Cape Town, Qingdao Art Museum in Shanghai, and First Floor Gallery, Harare.  She was a finalist in the 2022: Norval Foundation Sovereign Art Prize in Cape Town and has also just been selected ​​to join the very first Tracey Emin artist residency in Margate this year.

As usual, we hit Helen up with the important Qs: 

Last meal: Avocado on toast

Currently reading: In Gratitude by Jenny Diski; Lessico Famigliare (Family Sayings) by Natalia Ginzburg; and The Visible and the Invisible by Merleau-Ponty.

Currently watching: music videos: florence and the machine ‘King’, meghan thee stallion

Listening to: Mokoomba 

Favourite unwind: Running 

What advice would Helen give to someone who's wondering about the next step in their career?

There’s this whole thing: identify your dream or your truth and follow it. But it's so much easier said than done. It comes from such a position of privilege to assume that people can just follow their dreams. Nevertheless, listen to yourself and figure out what you really enjoy, and then carve out a bit of time for that. I think that’s necessary in order to not end up in an existential crisis. Especially with what's going on in the world.

A little about your co-hosts:

Anita Dullard is studying a MSc Climate and Energy Policy, taking time out from media advocacy; Avigail Shai is a diplomatic and policy adviser, and former diplomat – they met working in the international humanitarian sector, stayed for the chat and hilarity.

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