Troy Makaza

56 Henry, in collaboration with First Floor Gallery Harare, presents a selection of wall works by artist Troy Makaza. Inspired by watching his father repair household leakages with extrudable silicone, Makaza’s material of choice is a combination of his fine art training and his home life. Combining silicone and pigment by hand to create his own medium, Makaza is able to customize and layer the material to create tapestries that invite close inspection.

Seemingly woven, the semi-transparent plastic glows in the light and the opaque taffy-colored layers playfully evoke candy. Indeed, Makaza looks to what he calls “the politics of the stomach” for inspiration. He draws attention to the ways in which food and the distribution thereof factor into power struggles. In In every game, in every dawn, chickens appear stamped inside of white circles, possibly eggs. Their orientation is formulaic and neat, suggesting a carton or assembly line rather than a nest. Makaza uses order and rigidity to imply the separation from nature in the production and distribution of a seemingly accessible food.

The style of these works and their conscious coupling of the personal and political, as well as their woven appearance are borne of a rich history of Zimbabwean tapestry. The Rhodesian Tapestry, made in 1963, was a two year undertaking commissioned by the mayor of then-Rhodesia. It chronicled the “cardinal events” of Zimbabwean history from the point of view of the colonial head of state.

Makaza’s tapestries are irrefutably contemporary, based on the experiences of a young artist living through the turn of the century in an independent Zimbabwe. These works similarly chronicle cardinal events in the world and for Makaza personally. The tapestries center record-keeping from a decolonized perspective, combining life-altering social and political events with personal histories like the birth of Makaza’s daughter. Not all kisses lead to rosy bliss features a theater with the curtains up, an embodiment of the global stage. Three frogs observe a map, rivers crisscrossing the terrain. Makaza’s practice is invested in “giving voice to Zimbabwe and the untold stories that deserve to be heard.”

Troy Makaza (b. 1995, Harare, Zimbabwe) works in Harare, Zimbabwe. Having specialized in painting in art school but always interested in form and texture, Troy Makaza arrived at paint-infused silicone as his medium of choice. It is a material which can be cast, painted with, woven, and tied. Makaza’s works have progressively developed as an opportunity to speak to issues he finds compelling as a young Zimbabwean concerned with politics and its impact on the lives of ordinary people. Resonating with traditional modes like weaving and tapestry but unequivocally contemporary, Makaza’s works articulate the conversation of what African and uniquely Zimbabwean contemporary can be – a paradigm internationally engaging and locally compelling. Makaza’s works have received critical acclaim, winning the Tomorrows/Today prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2019. He has been featured in institutional exhibitions such as the Zimbabwean Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennial, 2024, Five Bhob at Zeitz MoCAA in Cape Town and Welcome Home at Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden in Marrakech. He is represented by First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe.