Moffat Takadiwa

Renowned visual artist, Moffat Takadiwa, is wrapping up his tour of Romania with an exhibition at Nicodim Gallery Bucharest. He will make his next stop-over at the Museum of Modern Art, Vienna Mumok.

Zimbabwe's representative at the Venice Biennale, the new star of African art, denounces the vestiges of colonization through alluring tapestries composed of the waste of his country, often sent by the West. He’s caught Beyoncé's eye... and rapper Jay-Z bought several of his works. Moffat Takadiwa, the new darling of African art, represents Zimbabwe at the 60th Venice Biennale. It is presented with other artists, selected by Rafael Chikukwa, director of the Gallery National Museum of Zimbabwe, a museum created in 1957, before the country's independence. In France, it is at Galerie Édouard-Manet in Gennevilliers where visitors can go to admire the artist’s works.

Ghanaian polymath Joseph Awuah-Darko discusses Accra's art scene, what he collects, and why painters are moving away from figuration.

Șerban Savu, the artist representing Romania this year, will present an arrangement of around 40 paintings that contend with the concept of work and its obverse, rest. Ciprian Mureșan will curate the pavilion, which expands beyond the Giardini to include events staged elsewhere.

A sextet of artists will represent Zimbabwe this time around, in a pavilion called “Undone”: Gillian Rosselli, Kombo Chapfika, Moffat Takadiwa, Sekai Machache, Troy Makaza, and Victor Nyakauru. Fadzai Veronica Muchemwawill curate.

Hart sits on the Roche Bobois Perspective sofa he compares to a catcher’s mitt, in front of a piece by Moffat Takadiwa called Found Black Keys.

Moffat’s work is heavily inspired by the plight of the working class.“I can’t separate my work from everyday struggles.” He addresses aspects of Zimbabwean traditions which have been implemented into culture having been rooted from colonial legacies. His sustainable approach to his work has always been inspired by the need to make the most of his resources.

Brutalized Language casts light on the violence inherent to globalisation that remains largely invisible to the west. Takadiwa's dissects the language of western art history into the visual vocabulary and feel of his own people. What seem at first like quilted abstractions rely on well-known cornerstones of western figuration.

The tapestries, part of an exhibition, Son of the Soil by Zimbabwean artist, Moffat Takadiwa, include pieces such as Land of Coca Cola and Colgate, The Green-Gold andOccupation of Land. They are so mesmerising that the hefty topics they examine—land ownership and consumer culture—almost come as a shock. Looking at the draperies is like gazing back at Earth from the uppermost atmosphere. But go closer, much closer, and you soon realise all is not as it seems.

Caps, lids, toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, rings and everyday objects with a more than ephemeral life - from a disposable perspective - become part of elaborate compositions that recall the artisan tradition. Every piece, every infinitesimal waste, recovered from immense mountains in landfills, is the bearer of a story, of a responsibility, often told by a printed name, by a brand, from a source. The theme of reuse and recovery, present in the production of numerous artists, in these works takes on particular value precisely because of the multiplicity of readings they offer and the extraordinary link with the origins, in a complex path that manages to bring out a profound dimension cultural.

Moffat Takadiwa considers the intricate wall-hangings that he stitches together from old computer keys or used toothbrush heads ‘post-colonial African Dada’; these abstract tapestries of waste confront Western viewers with the ugly fallout from their late-capitalist lifestyles, giving them the opportunity to buy it back, now redeemed through beauty.

Takadiwa rarely anthropomorphizes his clusters of shapes, rather the human presence is evoked through the materials and the volume of waste generated, as if to say, I am making a collective portrait without defining an individual. The impact of Takadiwa’s forms is undeniable. The pieces resonate visually as well as conceptually as they are rooted in Zimbabwean history and hardship, but they also celebrate the possibilities of making something lasting and positive out of the ever-growing mass of global waste.

Greater LA host Steve Chiotakis speaks with CARLA Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Preston-Zappas about Moffat Takadiwa's Los Angeles solo show. "A lot of America's trash and plastic recyclables end up in landfills of poorer nations, like Malaysia, India, and South Africa. Harare houses one of the largest landfills in Zimbabwe. Artist Moffat Takadiwa lives there. Takadiwa mines landfills for plastic trash. Much of it contains labels and logos of American brands. He then meticulously sorts and weaves together the found bottle caps, toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, and keyboard keys into elaborate tapestries."

Takadiwa is a man on a mission; he is planning some projects in Harare. He aims to collaborate with young thinkers — of all disciplines — who want to join the bid to breathe new life into the city. He would like them to help find solutions for problems resulting from a lack of service delivery by the local government. His main aim is to impart positive values to communities through creative efforts, and to leave a mark on the local arts scene. 

The work of Takadiwa can now be seen in Language is the only homeland, an exhibition in The Nest, NL, about language, and the role language plays in forming a national or cultural identity. In the exhibition space we talked to him about colonial relics, and how it is to work with broken keyboards.