Kure Kwegava Ndokusina Mutsubvu 2014
Kure Kwegava Ndokusina Mutsubvu 2014 Found plastic-weave bag, custom-made tartan fabric
65 x 70 cm
Pack for Perth 2015
Pack for Perth 2015 Found plastic-weave bag, custom-made tartan fabric
65 x 70 cm
Pack for Perth (detail) 2015
detail
The Past is a Foreign Country 2015
The Past is a Foreign Country 2015 Woven baskets and plastic-weave bag
Approx. 160 x 130 x 130 cm
Space Invader (Expat 1) 2015
Space Invader (Expat 1) 2015 Found plastic weave bags 185 x 120 cm
This is an isometric diagram of a Space Invader, or as it would appear in pixel art. The 3D pixels are also known as voxels.
Controversy sometimes arises over why some people, particularly Westerners, are called expatriates (expats) while others are termed immigrants.
Vote with your feet 2013
Vote with your feet 2013 Found plastic-weave bag, custom-made tartan fabric
65 x 70 cm
Vote with your feet 2013
detail
One of four finalists in the MTN New Contemporaries at the University of Johannesburg Gallery (see link). This exhibition happened shortly after an outbreak of xenophobic violence that spread through South African townships (see link).
work in progress
work in progress
work in progress
work in progress
Space Invaders 1 and 2 2008
Space Invaders 1 2008 Farming Region map of Zimbabwe hand-woven with the Rhodesian database (see link), coloured thread
82 x 89 cm
The first alien invaders to seize land in the area now known as Zimbabwe were colonial imperialists who became known as Rhodesians.
In the year 2000 in an attempt to rectify this historical imbalance, the Zimbabwean government implemented a fast-track land reform. This involved farm invasions which led to disastrous results for the economy.
Space Invaders 2 2008
Space Invaders 2 2008 Farming Region map of Zimbabwe hand-woven with a Zimbabwean telephone directory from the year 2000, coloured thread
82 x 89 cm
Space Invaders 3 2008
Space Invaders 3 2008 approx. 300 stuffed plastic-weave bags, coloured vinyl. dimensions variable
Space Invaders 3 2008 detail
detail
Space Invaders 3 2008
Space Invaders 3 2008
Rifugiato Mappa Del Mondo 3 2012
Rifugiato Mappa del Mondo 3 2012 Map of the world loosely based on infographics showing areas according to immigration and emigration statistics. Areas and routes with increased emigration are more worn than the destination countries, constructed out of new and used plastic-weave bags. This work was stitched together by Sibongile Chinjonjo, a Zimbabwean refugee currently living in South Africa
183 x 380 cm
Rifugiato Mappa Del Mondo 4 2012
Rifugiato Mappa del Mondo 4 2012
Map of the world loosely based on infographics showing areas according to immigration and emigration statistics. Areas and routes with increased emigration are more worn than the destination countries, constructed out of new and found plastic-weave bags. This work was stitched together by Sibongile Tete, a Zimbabwean currently living in South Africa.
183 x 380 cm
Kotoku tew a na mmati adwo 2012
Kotoku tew a, na mmati adwo 2012. Found plastic-weave bag, custom-made tartan fabric
65 x 70 cm
Kotoku tew a na mmati adwo 2012
detail
Ghana Must Go Quilt 1 2011
Ghana Must Go Quilt 1 2011 Found plastic-weave bags
170 x 250 cm
ʻIn Ghana and most of West Africa we call it the “Ghana must go” bag.ʼThis designation resulted from the various expulsions of immigrants that Ghana and Nigeria engaged in between the 1960’s and 1980’s. Many were only able to pack their belongings in such bags before fleeing, expelled with barely hours or days notice. Thus “Ghana must go’ is ironic at best and has mocking overtones at worst. Alternatively in Ghana, and humorously, they are called “Efiewura Sua Me”, literally “help me carry my bag”.
The slave quilt code. This idea is that African American slaves used quilts to communicate information about how to escape to freedom. The idea was introduced and popularized throughout the 1980s. However most quilt scholars and historians consider the “code” to be completely lacking any basis in fact.
Despite this, books such as Hidden in Plain View present the idea as fact. The theory gained publicity after one of the authors Raymond Dobard, Jr. appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The theory is based on the oral statements of Ozella McDaniel Williams, a quilt vendor in South Carolina.
Dobard believes the first quilt the seamstress would display had a wrench pattern. “It meant gather your tools and get physically and mentally prepared to escape the plantation,” he said. The seamstress would then hang a quilt with a wagon wheel pattern. This pattern told slaves to pack their belongings because they were about to go on a long journey.
Dobard said his favorite pattern was the bear’s paw, a quilt he believes directed slaves to head north over the Appalachian Mountains. “You were supposed to follow the literal footprints of the bear,” Dobard said. “Bears always go to water and berries and other natural food sources.”
The last quilt had a tumbling blocks pattern, which Dobard described as looking like a collection of boxes. “This quilt was only displayed when certain conditions were right. If, for example, there was an Underground Railroad agent in the area,” Dobard said. “It was an indication to pack up and go.”
In 2011 working together with Zimbabwean seamtress Sibongile Chinjonjo, I created a quilt showing the tumbling block or box pattern called Ghana Must Go Quilt 1.
Fact or myth, people agree that the idea of a quilt code is compelling. It is an interesting story with the potential to give back some power to the slaves in an otherwise bleak history. History is generally written by white men, and as these quilts would have been made by black women, we will never know the truth.
Ideas are brought into our everyday lives, much like viruses. They gain an identity and a history, we either coexist or let them extinguish. The word ‘fabricate’ can mean to construct something honestly, or to deliberately deceive.
