Kudzanai Chiurai‘s multimedia work explores the personal, psychological and social impact of the power structures in place in his native Zimbabwe, as well as the larger region of Southern Africa. Part of his State of the Nation series, Revelations V is an elaborately staged photograph that directly confronts interconnected themes of violence and liberation, as told through a fictionalized depiction of a constructed African state. The title is in reference to the Book of Revelation and its imagining of a future civilization that is only achieved through struggle and persecution. By casting a female in powerful central roles throughout his work, Chiurai upends colonial gender stereotypes, thus highlighting his rebellious nature as both an artist and activist.