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A young African man with an open mouth smile showing teeth, he's wearing a black collar-less shirt and blue glasses which contrast against his dark brown skin. He is standing in an outdoor urban space.A young African man with an open mouth smile showing teeth, he's wearing a black collar-less shirt and blue glasses which contrast against his dark brown skin. He is standing in an outdoor urban space.
With Maxwell Mutanda
FeedOral History
Edited: June 28, 2023
Pronouns
He/him
Date and place of birth
b. 1983, Harare, Zimbabwe
Current location
London, UK
Year(s) of residency and/or fellowship
2020, Rapid Response Fellow

How do you characterize the media you work in?

I suppose what it boils down to for me is that I’m following the journey of a line as best I can: on a surface, on a screen, on paper, on fabric, and so forth. My background is in architecture. The digital installation that I produced during the Rapid Response fellowship marked a turning point for me in expanding the media that I use; lately, I’ve been working more with video, too.

How does your practice engage with technology?

The Eyebeam fellowship came at a time when, as an architect, I was looking at the advent of the digital in built space, or how a relationship with technology can change physical space.

What was your focus during your time at Eyebeam?

I was thinking about spatial injustice experienced by digital platform workers in urban space, with an emphasis on motorcycle couriers and the food economies around them. In my research, I looked at the history of delivery motorcycles, from the first bicycle delivery from a co-op in the early 20th century in the United Kingdom to where we are now. I made drawings on draped fabrics that deconstructed my findings into discrete elements, which I exhibited at a villa in Frankfurt.

Motorcycle couriers, at night, are waiting at the intersection of stop light, Buitenkant Street and Mill Streets in Cape Town, South Africa.

Motorcycle couriers waiting at the intersection of Buitenkant Street and Mill Street, Courtesy of Maxwell Mutanda

Was there a culminating project?

During the Rapid Response fellowship, I was also thinking about the movement of technology and information through undersea data cables in the Atlantic, and how that path mirrors the movement of people and goods as part of the Atlantic Slave Trade. This developed into a digital exhibition and a documentary film, called One-Fifth of the Earth’s Surface, that I made with Hakeem Adam.

How has dialogue or collaboration with Eyebeam artists and alumni factored into your work?

There has been a lot of dialogue with Rapid Response alumni, where people reach out and say, “I have a project I want to share with you, what are your thoughts?” I’ve been in ongoing conversations with JPGS [Juan Pablo García Sossa], for example, who invited me to Germany. Eyebeam has this wonderful extended network of people who have come before, as well, which is really nice; a couple of people who come to mind are Caroline Sinders and Grayson Earle.

How do you think about the role of the artist in society?

I spend a lot of time observing the world, taking things in. [Joseph] Beuys talked about this idea of social sculpture: that art is everywhere, art is everything, and art is everyone. I feel like my work isn’t uniquely mine; it’s shared with the audience, and incomplete without them. It’s really important to me that the work is a conversation—with the audience, with society, and with myself—and that, as opposed to being didactic, it invites the viewers to piece things together themselves.

Artist

Program

ChangelogEdited: June 28, 2023Published: June 12, 2023

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