PRESS RELEASE
TAFADZWA TEGA: Matakadya Kare (Past Glories Won’t Address Today’s Problems)
Mar 5 – Mar 26, 2025
Matakadya Kare (Past Glories Won’t Address Today’s Problems), a solo exhibition by Tafadzwa Tega.
Opening reception: Wednesday 5th March - 6pm
Text by Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti
With this body of work, Zimbabwean artist Tafadzwa Tega is reflecting on his lived experience, reminiscing over a seemingly beautiful past and contrasting it with a present of mixed fortunes. Embedded in the unsettling musing are the stories narrated by the elders of his family, as well as his own observations. Observing him sharing this line of thought is like listening to Oliver Mtukudzi’s song Mutserendende, hearing:
Ndovayemura ende baba vakaenda…
Hupenyu hwavo waiva mutserendende…
Manje hwangu wanhasi kukwire gomo …
Ende kukwire gomo hupoterera muzukuruwe...[1]
In the song Tuku (as Mtukudzi is fondly referred to) is appreciating, almost with envy, how life was easy for his father and aunt who are long gone, comparing with his own, qualifying it as ‘a tough climb’ (going uphill). Underpinning Tega’s meditation are expectations carried over from the formative years, prospects that have not been fulfilled due to unforeseen circumstances, and forces he has no control over. Growing up, Tega was always told that there would be light at the end of the tunnel. An encounter with Zizekian philosophy would have cautioned him that the light at the end of the tunnel possibly signals an approaching train. Things have changed and the artist cannot turn to glories and achievements of the past to address the current. The artist’s contemplations are more like lamentations. Indeed, there is a thin line between the two.
It is tempting to read the radiant clothing in Tega’s compositions as some form of colour-blocking – an embrace of fashion and an expression of joy and happiness for the seemingly impeccably dressed individuals. Yet the artist is not portraying a luxuriant and opulent lifestyle as is seen through the modest interiors and surroundings we find the subjects in. In this case, dressing well is a coping mechanism for unsettled individuals going through a lot. The only way they can attempt to regain a semblance of their fading dignity is to dress well like everyone else around them.[2]
In the same vein are the brightly painted carpets seemingly in harmony with the subjects’ dresses – with their styles ranging from simple monochromes to variations of checkers and chevrons. The carpets are the artist’s distressing recollection of his first experience of a home in the diaspora. He and his friends spent a few months sleeping on the bare floor of a warehouse with no pillows nor adequate blankets. He finds it convenient to add colour to the recollection.
Various objects are seen lying everywhere in these compositions, as the artist uses them to communicate multiple stories. They are placed on the floor, on the tables and hanging on the walls. Most of them are empty containers cherished for the sentimental value attached to them, having been brought into these spaces by loved individuals. Also found in these homes are some flowers – a sign of life in the subjects’ ordinary homes, yet also a stuck reminder of an era when the only flowers the artist encountered in his home were brought in by a relative working in the suburbs.
In Tega’s work, books and newspapers give us a hint that the individuals portrayed next to them or holding them are literate. Yet, in most cases, these are highly literate immigrants like the central character in Tafadzwa Taruvinga’s The Educated Waiter, resorting to performing menial tasks as they do not have the right papers. The male figures in Newspaper rekwaMupomeri could be juggling different tasks to survive. Of the odd jobs they do, one of them is to look after someone else’s dog. Both could be tailors sewing and mending clothes. Yet, they still find time to catch up with what is happening in the world, or to peruse through the classified columns to see if they still advertise opportunities in their areas of specialty.
The artist yearns for the sense of community he had around him while growing up. He has seen glimpses of that in the manner the spaza shop owner in Taking Stock is appreciated by members of the community around him who value the service he renders. As such, they try to protect him from anyone who wants harm. Back in the day, in Mbare, a simple object like a newspaper (especially the Sunday edition) went a long way in strengthening ties in the community. One person could buy it, and it would be passed on from one home to the other throughout the week.
A common thread in Tega’s colourful compositions is the peel and stick wallpaper in the backdrop, which was quite common in the homes of his neighbourhood. Around Christmas each year, the wallpaper would be replaced by a new covering – a present from the aunts and uncles of the family perhaps. A room could end up with a different wallpaper for each of the walls. Interestingly, the wallpaper is a defining motif of many Black homes across various Black geographies throughout the world. From Harare to São Paulo, Port-au-Prince to Jackson-Mississippi to Newham, the wallpaper speaks to the dispersal of ideas and reveals a shared culture of a community scattered around the globe. With people painting their walls nowadays, the wallpaper now mostly exists in old photographs from past eras.
Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti is a Nancy and Robert J. Carney Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Art History at Rice University in Houston, Texas
[1] I envy father who's long gone / Their lives were free-flowing / But mine today is an uphill climb / And an uphill climb means going around, my nephew
[2] ‘Kuvhara nhamo nemucheno’ – to cover one's sorrows with fine clothing
