WHAT MAKES AN IDEAL STUDIO SPACE FOR YOU?

I think an ideal studio space for me is a space which is positioned in a good location, by that I mean proximity to where I can get materials, where certain groups of people can have access to my work, and also a place where I can have parasites, that is young artists who are still in the early stages of their career who need a host-a more established artist to learn from. So, if a place has all of that, then the space has enough life to keep me going.

HOW DOES YOUR CURRENT STUDIO SPACE FEED YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS?

It is situated in the middle of a neighborhood and I have groups of young artists whom I work with and benefit from my practice and at the same time I am learning quite a lot from them. I also draw inspiration from the neighborhood of Mbare so it’s important for me to be here.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS WORKED FROM COLLECTIVE ART SPACES?

No, when we started with my generation there were no art collectives, so we didn’t have these hosts or brothers or sisters in the field. There was a huge gap between successful and upcoming artists. The successful artists were either in the diaspora or out of reach in one way or the other so there was this disconnect. I was part of the generation of artists who started forming art collectives, we felt the gap, so maybe that’s why we are concerned about other younger artists.

DIFFERENT TERMS ARE OFTEN USED TO REFER TO THE MATERIAL YOU WORK WITH FROM RECYCLED MATERIALS TO TRASH TO FOUND OBJECTS, HOW BEST WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MEDIUM?

To start with, I think these items are not meant to be art materials, they are remnants from consumer goods or consumer waste. They have already served their purpose and I pick them up at the end of their life cycle, so I don’t look at them simply as materials. Sometimes I call them consumer residue, which is probably the same as trash, but I like to pin it to the term consumer because it speaks a lot to what we are using every day. Found objects is a term which is also used a lot within art and with artists, but it’s a very open term that can be used with a lot of different things, anything can be found, there are artists who work with furniture, wood, or soil.

HOW BIG IS YOUR TEAM AND WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS LIKE?

The most important team members in my work process do not necessarily work in my studio, they work in the various dumping sites I collect from including Magaba here in Mbare. So, I have people strategically placed in different areas to collect materials for me. These teams, in Mbare and Chitungwiza, have more than 30 people and consist mostly of women. Some of them are homeless people who have been living in the dumping fields, some were just vagabonds and others, people who were collecting plastic waste or e-waste to resell. These people are also a rich source of knowledge as far as my work is concerned, and they have clever ways of collecting these items in numbers, they even know how to clean the items using unconventional ways and how to handle certain properties like materials that fade in the sun, those that are biodegradable and so on. I commission some of them to look for certain items including toothbrushes, and they might know a certain brand or material which looks like that or they even ask me questions like ‘what kind of toothbrush do you want?’ ‘do you want something with bristles?’ ‘what kind of bristles?’ so those questions force me to get specific with my needs which I appreciate.

At the studio I work with between seven and ten people, we sometimes hire people on a part-time basis and at the moment, I have two students from the National Gallery School of Visual Art. I have an artist who is also assisting me, Tendai, I also have my brother, a filmmaker who is assisting me and my fulltime assistants.

DID YOUR STUDIES SHAPE THIS DIRECTION YOU'VE TAKEN AS AN ARTIST?

I went to the Harare Polytechnic to study Fine Art in 2006 but the curriculum was not very satisfactory. A lot of economic and political shifts were also happening in the country around that time and the lecturers where under pressure. I could say that’s what pushed us to look for materials elsewhere. So, we didn’t necessarily benefit from set academic curriculum. I got trained in a very informal way. Some of the lecturers at that time like Chiko Chazunguza had their own setup at home so we benefited by following them to their houses and having this very informal training. Chiko is one of the people who pushed us to find alternative ways of making art and during my process of lamenting what to work with, I landed on the idea of working with consumer waste.

THE VISUAL ART CAREER HAS ITS CHALLENGES, WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO KEEP GOING?

This is a very tough question because I don’t look at this as a job to start with and I cannot pick a specific thing that drives me. Sometimes it’s the gratification people get from my work that pushes me, and the feedback I receive from the market and my audience. In a way, the returns also push me and mount pressure. Beyond me as an individual, I have to provide for my family and the impact of the work also pushes me.

WOULD YOU SAY PEOPLE BUY THE STORY BEHIND A PIECE?

It’s very rare for an artist to explain their work at an exhibition or to have texts on the side of the work, that’s not the norm. The works sometimes have their own lives and answer their own questions and people engage with the work on that level, so it can stand its own battles.

WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT AS AN ARTIST?

I don’t think I have achieved a lot, but maybe if you are looking at it from the background of a Zimbabwean artist, I have opened a lot of doors as a Zimbabwean artist. As a contemporary young artist however, in comparison with my peers, I still have a long way to go, I’m still playing catch up.

HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE AFRICAN CONTEMPORARY ART SCENE CURRENTLY?

The scene is growing, and a lot of experts believe it’s just a bubble that will fade with time, but I think if we have a lot of young upcoming artists, we can sustain ourselves. We have a lot of talent so that’s why firstly, it’s important for me to cultivate and make sure we have a lot of talent and secondly, besides having incubators, we also need to grow the whole art ecosystem in Africa, such that we have our own collectors to sustain the market internally because when we rely on overseas collectors the market is somewhat artificial and can collapse, but when you are supported at home, you are much stronger. Most importantly we need to build an ecosystem of players including curators, art historians, art writers, shipping companies, framers and people who do packaging so it becomes a sustainable industry. Writers are an important element for art documentation and giving context to artist work. The scene is growing, but the pace is not that good, we need to gain momentum.

WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOUR YOUNGER SELF?

I would say keep working and keep believing in yourself, be consistent and persistent!