Moffat Takadiwa’s Exhibition with the W&L Art Museum Reimagines the Legacy of Global Consumption
Recoded Memories brings Zimbabwean artist Moffat Takadiwa’s sculptural exploration of memory, waste and the environmental aftermath of global power structures to the heart of Virginia.
Exhibition title: Moffat Takadiwa: “Recoded Memories”
Location: Watson Galleries, 204 W. Washington St., Lexington, Va.
Dates: Oct. 24, 2025 through May 31, 2026
Reception: Thursday, October 23, 2025, 5:30 to 8 p.m.
The Art Museum and Galleries at Washington and Lee University present “Recoded Memories,” a solo exhibition by contemporary Zimbabwean artist Moffat Takadiwa (born in 1983 in Karoi, Zimbabwe), whose work transforms reclaimed materials into expansive installations exploring memory, consumption and latent systems of power.
“There’s so much significance in the materials I use,” Takadiwa says of his reliance on discarded communication and recordkeeping devices such as VHS tapes. Over time, these materials have developed a vocabulary of their own. Computer keys, central to this exhibition, figure prominently: “I use them a lot when I speak about language. When you are displaced, language can become one of the first vehicles to connect back to home, or a memory of it.”
Takadiwa’s large-scale sculptural works, many of which take the form of intricately composed tapestry-like forms, repurpose post-consumer waste to interrogate global systems of circulation. His works question the culture of amassing and throwing things away, as well as what society chooses to preserve. Drawing from his indigenous Korekore aesthetic traditions and philosophies, which emphasize material reuse and collective knowledge, Takadiwa’s practice challenges dominant Western narratives of value, labor and permanence. In doing so, he reimagines found objects as not merely a critique of institutionalized aesthetic conventions, but a material strategy for sociocultural and historical commentary.
“I’m not just making objects, but statements meant to change the lives of my people, the image of my country and the world at large,” he says. “It’s possible for us to build a better memory of the places we call home.”
The exhibition is organized by the Director of Art Museum and Galleries, Isra El-beshir, and curatorial consultant Rachel Du (former visiting curator of Asian art). The exhibition is guest curated by Clement Akpang, assistant professor of art history at the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design at the George Washington University, whose research focuses on modern and contemporary African art and the cultural significance of found objects in art, in collaboration with curator Meaghan M. Walsh, the W&L Louise C. Herreshoff Curatorial Fellow.
“We are honored to have Moffat Takadiwa at Washington and Lee University, and to welcome the transformative conversations this exhibition will generate,” said Isra El-beshir, W&L Art Museum director. “‘Recoded Memories’ is both an invitation and a provocation to examine the entanglements between consumerism, environmental forces and the politics of waste. We are thrilled to welcome him to Virginia and our community.”
For more information, visit artmuseum.wlu.edu/moffat.
About the Artist:
Moffat Takadiwa (born in 1983 in Karoi, Zimbabwe) lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe. A prominent voice from Zimbabwe’s contemporary art scene, Takadiwa transforms post-consumer waste — computer keyboards, bottle tops, toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes — into densely layered tapestry-like sculptures. His practice centers on his Korekore heritage while exploring themes of consumerism, inequality, post-colonialism and environmental decay.
Takadiwa’s work has been exhibited widely, including in the 60th Venice Biennale (Foreigners Everywhere, 2024); MUMOK, Vienna (Avantgarde & Liberation, 2024); and the Orange County Museum of Art (Color is the First Revelation of the World, 2024). Recent solo exhibitions include Second Life (2025) and Feeling Without Touching (2023) at Nicodim Gallery, New York; Possible New Dawn (2024) at Nicodim Annex, Los Angeles; and Vestiges of Colonialism (2023–2024) at Galeria Nicodim in Bucharest and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare.
His works are held in major collections including the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Paris), the European Parliament Contemporary Art Collection (Brussels) and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. He is represented by Nicodim Gallery, with locations in Los Angeles and New York.
Takadiwa is the founder of Mbare Art Space, a visionary creative hub housed in a repurposed colonial-era beer hall in Harare’s Mbare township. Once a center of Zimbabwean cultural life and political organizing, Mbare now hosts a vibrant arts community. Through Mbare Art Space, Takadiwa provides studio space, mentorship and public programming, creating a model for socially and ecologically engaged cultural infrastructure.
For additional information and requests:
museums@wlu.edu
540-458-8768