Fahrenheit 451 2019 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints (the entire text of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury) 199 x 90 cm
Selected Work
Mahwani Thousand 2019 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 85 x 172 cm
Maone or mahwani (like the English word ‘one’) is Shona slang for ‘things are bad’ or ‘its difficult.’ When things got really bad in Zimbabwe, mahwani thousand emerged, mocking the run away inflation and perhaps the feeling mawhani would not adequately capture how difficult things were in the country.
Please Call Me (accidental cover) 2018 glass beads and wire approx. 22 x 34 cm
Send Money 2018 glass beads and wire approx. 22 x 34 cm
Nokia 1100 Handshake 2 2018 glass beads and wire approx. 25 x 40 cm
The revenge of 400 years is losing its baby teeth 2018
The Revenge of 400 Years is Losing its Baby Teeth 2018 Baby teeth and custom-made stokie slipper approx. 22 x 9 x 6 cm
The revenge of 400 years (detail) 2018
The revenge of 400 years is losing its baby teeth
‘The revenge of 400 years is losing its baby teeth’ is modified from the Italian proverb ‘a hundred-year-old revenge still has its baby teeth’. This new version alludes to the abuse of Africans through slavery and colonialism, and how at last – this issue, ignored for so long – is slowly starting to gain traction.
It is a tradition in Zimbabwe and South Africa to put one’s baby teeth into a stokie / slipper for the Tooth Fairy as opposed to under the pillow as in most other English-speaking countries.
Z$100 Trillion
Z$100 Trillion 2017 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 82 x 163 cm
The Z$100 trillion note was the largest ever printed in Zimbabwe. It came at a time when hyperinflation had soared so high that it reached Z$300 trillion to the US dollar on the black market in February 2009. Shortly afterwards the Zimbabwean currency was abandoned and replaced with US dollars. The Z$100 trillion has become a collector’s item.
US$1 2017
US$1 2017 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 72 x 173 cm
US dollars, legal tender in Zimbabwe since 2009 are referred to as ‘magirinhi’ – ‘greens’, ‘huni nyoro’ – ‘firewood that is not dry’ and ‘mashizha’ – ‘leaves’ which are usually green.
Kuwona Hutsi 2017
Kuwona Hutsi 2017 Matchsticks outlining R.G. Mugabe’s signature and dirty US dollars from Zimbabwe 33 x 31 cm
‘Kuwona hutsi’ means seeing smoke in Shona in Zimbabwe. It is one of the metaphors that the Shona speakers created to communicate various messages concerning the socio-economic and political crisis that has been occurring in their country since the year 2000. ‘Seeing smoke i.e. having smoke in the eyes’ and by extension ‘being caught in a burning building’, all have the connotations of one being on an unsustainable, difficult, hopeless and confusing situation.
The Zimbabwe crisis as captured in Shona metaphor. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233222046_The_Zimbabwe_crisis_as_captured_in_Shona_metaphor
Plenty Sits Still Hunger is a Wanderer 2017
Plenty Sits Still Hunger is a Wanderer 2017 Found plastic-weave bag, custom-made tartan fabric 65 x 70 cm
Plenty Sits Still Hunger is a Wanderer (detail)
