Zimbabwean artist Moffat Takadiwa transforms discarded consumer waste—including computer keys, toothbrush heads, and plastic combs—into intricate, tapestry-like sculptures. His latest solo exhibition, "The Crown!" at Semiose in Paris, features large-scale works foraged from landfills in Harare’s Mbare neighborhood. These meticulously sorted and woven objects create organic patterns that mask their industrial origins, forcing a confrontation with the physical reality of global overconsumption.
Takadiwa’s practice addresses the "colonial hangover" by repurposing the literal debris of Western consumerism that ends up in African illicit dump sites. By utilizing items like afro combs, which carry historical weight regarding Black political identity and colonial self-fashioning, the artist explores the tensions of Africa’s post-colonial afterlife. The work serves as a material correction to the myth of digital deletion, proving that waste never truly disappears but merely migrates to the global south.