moffat takadiwa threads zimbabwe's plastic waste landscape into undulating tapestries

In Harare, Zimbabwe, Moffat Takadiwa collects hard leftovers from global consumption and remakes them into surfaces that feel bodily, tender, and full of memory. Computer keys, toothbrush heads, bottle caps, buttons, combs, and nail polish parts are sorted and built into works that hover between textile, sculpture, and archive. From a distance, the pieces read as ceremonial skins, shields, or oversized jewelry, while close viewing reveals thousands of small plastic fragments carrying traces of use, trade, waste, and touch. The practice slows mass-produced discard through handwork, turning waste into a material language of repair. The materials connect to Zimbabwe’s history, where imported waste and colonial extraction have shaped the landscape around Harare and the informal recycling economy.

"In Harare, Zimbabwe, artist Moffat Takadiwa gathers the hard leftovers of global consumption and works them into surfaces that feel unexpectedly tender, bodily, and full of memory. Computer keys, toothbrush heads, bottle caps, buttons, combs, and nail polish parts are sorted and built into works that hover between textile, sculpture, and archive. From across the room, they can read as ceremonial skins, shields, or oversized pieces of jewelry."

"Up close, the image breaks apart into thousands of small plastic fragments, each one carrying traces of use, trade, waste, and touch. Through that patient remaking, Takadiwa turns discard into a material language of repair. Through that shift in scale, Takadiwa's work reveals a softer method. His practice begins with hard, discarded, mass-produced objects, then slows them down through handwork."

"Moffat Takadiwa's material language is inseparable from Zimbabwe's recent history and from the landscape around Harare, where imported waste has become part of the capital city's outskirts. The artist's studio is based in Mbare, one of the country 's major recycling centers and an important hub for the informal economy, and his works are made from materials recovered from dumping sites around the capital, along with waste from a clothing factory."

"The reason Moffat Takadiwa uses discarded found materials is to show us how the colonial project ravaged through his people and their land,' In a 2024 designboom interview with Southern Guild, the gallery framed his use of found materials. ' Zimbabwe's plentiful natural resources are conspicuous in their absence. ' With this in mind, the fragments of plastic waste are evidence of a trade imb"

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