Kresiah Mukwazhi: Secession, Wien is the first monograph by Zimbabwean artist Kresiah Mukwazhi, published on the occasion of her 2023 exhibition at the Secession in Vienna.

The publication includes reproductions of numerous works and a series of photographs by the artist, alongside texts by Noemi Smolik (essay), a poem by Pauline Chirata Mukondiwa, and a conversation between Mukwazhi and curator Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa. An artist intervention, a loose black-and-white photoprint titled kuda (2015), is included in the book as a discrete element of the publication.

Across the reproduced works and photographic material, Mukwazhi’s practice is anchored in her direct engagement with socio-political conditions in her native Zimbabwe, particularly the everyday lives, oppression, and resilience of women. Her work interweaves textile painting, collage, video, performance, and sculptural approaches that respond to gender-based violence, exploitation and systemic marginalization. Recurring themes in her practice include mutual support, humour as a tactic of resistance, and the female body as both site of trauma and locus of self-empowerment.

Mukwazhi’s artistic methodology emerges from sustained observation and long-term engagement with communities affected by structural violence. She often combines vibrant, colour-laden textiles with figuration that both confronts and reframes visual narratives around sex work, patriarchy and social precarity. Her work mobilizes visual activism and spiritual symbolism to articulate spaces of resistance and collective healing.

In the context of the book, the inclusion of critical and poetic texts alongside Mukwazhi’s own conversation with the curator provides multiple entry points into her disciplinary concerns, situating her practice within broader discourses on gender, post-colonial contexts and the politics of representation.