Gloriosa Superba

96 x 47 x 63 cm

PLA, epoxy clay, acrylic

An exploration of vulnerability and radical softness accompanied by an attempt to articulate a ‘black doll gaze’.

Pre-intertopia, 2022

Pre-intertopia is Makumbe’s initial step in their endeavour to encapsulate the experience and/or condition of being 'in-transit' through exploring the condition of ‘inbetweeness’ and ‘Intertopia; a speculative 4-dimensional space which Makumbe has located to be in the throat of wormholes where those that are ‘in-transit’ reside. ‘Intertopia’ stems from and draws from the cosmology, spiritual beliefs and ritualistic practices of the Shona people of Zimbabwe and its intersections with speculative interstellar travel, trans-ness & diasporic yearning.

Guidance and intercession is requested from ancestral spirits by an extended family through Bira ceremonies performed by the Shona people. Makumbe views these ceremonies as gates for communication, and possibly transportation to that which is beyond, that transgress the laws of physics that govern our experience of space and time. Makumbe hypothesises that the exotic matter required for traversable wormholes could be the spiritual faith, if thought of as a matter, which radiates in abundance from Bira ceremonies.

Her

PLA, Epoxy Resin, Acrylic

205 x 170 x 60 cm

Gourd

PLA, epoxy clay, Acrylic

85 x 21 x 20 cm

Portal

Sand

380 x 450 cm

Untitled (2022)

A series of untitled drawings that preceded Pre-intertopia

Untitled i

Oil stick on paper

21 x 29.7 cm

Untitled ii

Oil stick on paper

21 x 29.7 cm

Untitled iii

Oil stick on paper

21 x 29.7 cm

The Figments, 2021

‘The Figments’ are a series of material manifestations of digital entities from Living Doesn’t

Mean You’re Alive, an audio-visual work by artist Kumbirai Makumbe.

Living Doesn’t Mean You’re Alive interrogates the emotional aspects of a human’s emancipation from their body and their ascension into an informorph; a virtual body of information that possesses self-awareness and sentience. Within this process of translation, so much of what is gained is discussed but then what is also lost? And is what is lost of importance? It is the nuances of the loss of one’s physicality that Kumbirai Makumbe is drawn to, and it’s parallels to what’s lost in our endeavours for progress.

Their work for Control the Virus explores the liminal space between the digital and physical but also engages with the process of translation of matter between these two spaces. ‘The Figments’ are physical and material embodiments of digital entities from the work but also the question; what is lost and gained within these translations? Each sculpture was initially sculpted in clay, then 3D scanned, manipulated digitally, 3D printed and then finished by hand.

The Figments have an essence of both the digital but also evident of being handled by hands. The process is evident within their being. They don’t answer this question but are a beautiful and enchanting start to doing so.

Black Hole

25cm x 18.5cm x 8.5cm

PLA, Epoxy Resin, Acrylic

Coupling

12cm x 24.2cm x 23cm

PLA, Epoxy Resin, Acrylic

Them

14cm x 30cm x 13cm

PLA, Epoxy Resin, Acrylic

Living Doesn't Mean You're Alive, 2021

Video, 17:15

Living Doesn’t Mean You’re Alive (LDMYA) interrogates the emotional aspects of a human’s emancipation from their body and their ascension into an informorph; a virtual body of information that possesses self-awareness and sentience. Within this process of translation, so much of what is gained is discussed but then what is also lost? And is what is lost of importance?

It is the nuances of the loss of one’s physicality that Kumbirai Makumbe is drawn to, and its parallels to what’s lost in our endeavours for progress especially when it comes to transformation. It's an exploration of the emotional particularities of being within the process of change itself. It’s a moment of questioning what truly fuelled their yearning to emancipate themselves from the confines of their biological human body. Was it the body itself? or was it the experience of inhabiting their body in the context it existed within?

In LDMYA you're embraced and taken on a journey through environments born out of the infomorph’s catharsis. The reminiscing, occasionally bordering upon yearning, becomes somewhat tangible and gains a materiality of its own. This matter then takes shape as figments of the informorphs psyche becoming sculptural and playfully flirtatious with comprehensibility.

LDMYA explores the liminal space between the digital and physical but also engages with the process of translation of matter between these two spaces. The Figments are physical and material embodiments of these translations.

Commissioned by Dateagle Art & Hervisions for Control the Virus Vol. 3. Kindly supported by Arts Council England.

Made in collaboration with:

HYE - Sound Producer

TAAHLIAH - Sound Producer

Alpha Rats - Programmer

It Was A Mix Of Things, 2020

Multimedia installation

Commissioned by Arebyte Gallery for POWERPLAY, 2020.

It Was A Mix of Things follows the journey of a human undergoing the process of ‘Ascension'. resulting in their transformation into an infomorph, a biological entity or consciousness existing online. This is all in an attempt to formulate effective alternative transcendental politics. One that doesn’t involve the ‘malpractices’ and disheartening utilizations of technology currently evident in our socio-political landscape.

The Gate

18 x 11 x 23 cm

Ceramic with silver glaze

Eywa

128 x 200 cm

Bespoke graphic rug

Support Structure

31 x 31 x 19 cm

Nylon

Untitled Print

170 x 100 xm

440gsm PVC

Evo's Turn, 2019

Video, 4:25

‘Evo’s Turn’ explores Makumbe’s questioning of our conceptualisation of blackness and its form. The work explores a seemingly uninhabited extra-terrestrial terrain accompanied by a monologue performed by Makumbe’s Voice clone Evo.  Within this, Evo questions its own inherent blackness, as an avatar created by Makumbe, in a way synonymous to an artificial intelligence questioning its own sentience, or better yet, its ‘human-ness’.