Harare-based artist Moffat Takadiwa collects discarded plastic—keyboard keys, toothbrush heads, bottle caps, combs, and nail polish components—from recycling hubs and dump sites around Zimbabwe’s capital and transforms them into large-scale works that blend sculpture, textile, and archival record. Takadiwa threads and assembles these fragments into large-scale installations that resemble textiles, ceremonial garments, and archaeological artifacts. His practice critiques colonial extraction, global trade imbalance, and consumer excess, using Zimbabwe’s landscape—where imported plastics litter the outskirts of cities once rich in natural resources—as both source material and subject. Through labor-intensive processes of sorting, drilling, and threading, Takadiwa creates works that balance beauty and critique. His art highlights the possibility of repair and renewal while confronting the environmental and historical consequences of consumption and exploitation.
Design Boom
