Collapsed talks between the ruling and opposition parties in Zimbabwe got me thinking (trivial as it may seem to some) about artists and art in Africa, with respect to their place within the harsh realities of minute-by-minute political, climatic and social changes. Not even South Africa has been spared, what with the recent spate of killings of neighboring refugees by locals in numerous townships.

We, in the West, can only imagine what it must be like to exist in such chaotic conditions. Leonardo DiCaprio, interviewed after the making of Blood Diamond, stated that we Westerners are living a fantasy. I couldn't agree with him more.

Here in London, earlier this year, James Lindon, Head of Sales at Victoria Miro Gallery, while addressing the rise of the African Contemporary Art market and the official launch of Covent Garden's Africa Centre, spoke about Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu. As well, both Victoria Miro and Saatchi and Saatchi Galleries, who have been promoting and encouraging African artists settled in Britain and Europe at large, are heralding the work of  Mutu  as groundbreaking.

Wangechi Mutu trained as both a sculptor and anthropologist. Through collage, Mutu capitalized on the two-sided nature of her materials, conveying both the content and physicality of their sources. In using old medical diagrams, her collages carry the authenticity of artefact, as well as an appointed cultural value. In ‘Complete Prolapsus of the Uterus' Mutu contrives a racial hybrid: a puckered, prudish white face masks an ancient tribal wisdom. Mutu examines how ideology is implicitly tied to corporeal form. She cites a European preference of physique, inflicted on and adapted by Africans, resulting in hierarchical difference and genocide.  -Saatchi & Saatchi Gallery, London

In Mutu, we see an artist who is expressing the state of several African nations. Her work builds on the long-held tradition in African art of focusing on the human form. Indeed, the human figure is employed more than any other model in African art. Many historians posit that this was vastly influential in Europe throughout its movements of colonization and commerce; the importation of items such as pottery allowed Denmark, Spain, Britain and, to some extent, Portugal to act as the channels by which this art entered the European.

African art has always tended toward a visual abstraction of what its artists see, as opposed to historically explored naturalistic conceptions. Color and form are utilized to emphasize the emotions of characters, a technique quite prevalent in the cultures of ancient Nigeria and the Congo and, to a degree, Egypt. These influences are now informing the daring works of artists like Mutu.

I wonder, would Wangechi Mutu's art be possible if she were living in Africa? Perhaps we'll encounter more African fine artists taking the world stage while speaking of personal experience. By the time this article is published, I hope that talks between Mugabe and Tsvangirai will have recommenced and a truce declared. And I hope, ultimately, that the process of cultural, political and economical evolution will lead to creativity being granted its rightful place alongside peace and progress.