Pardon Mapondera
Born in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe | Lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa
Born in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe, Pardon Mapondera is a full-time artist currently living and working in Cape Town, South Africa. His primary medium is found objects and discarded materials—the remnants of a global consumer culture. Through these fragments, Mapondera collects, contends with, and curates the layered histories, politics, and social narratives embedded in what others have cast aside.
“I’m fascinated by the flexibility of some of the materials I use—how, for instance, heat transforms plastic into a metaphor for contorted and traumatized bodies. At that point, the materials carry their own stories and philosophies. As an artist, I become the curator and broker of these stories.”
— Pardon Mapondera
By repurposing what is broken or discarded, Mapondera exposes the violence projected upon both environment and culture in postcolonial Africa—violence enacted by colonizers and perpetuated by the colonized. His material practice becomes a conversation about transformation: of matter, of memory, and of meaning.
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Artist Statement
“I don’t claim a monopoly on wisdom, but I share my thoughts through art. My work reflects my lived experience, observing and questioning the politics of everyday Black existence and struggle. I explore the rapidly shifting cultural values of postcolonial society, where traditions erode, transform, and adapt under the labor and resilience of humankind.
Through my art, I seek ways to look into the past while moving forward, guided by the West African philosophy of Sankofa, which teaches that one must return to their roots to move ahead. The Zezuru proverb ‘Ziva kwawakabva kwaunoenda husiku’—know where you come from, for you do not know where you are going at night—anchors this reflection. It suggests clarity can only be achieved through remembrance.
I am intrigued by how postcolonial African politics, Indigenous science, traditional medicine, and spiritual systems all serve as coordinates in Africa’s ongoing pursuit of truth. My material philosophy draws from another Zezuru proverb, ‘Hupenyu inhava yebenzi – musanganiswa wezvese,’ which speaks to the interconnected nature of existence.
Colonization fractured this wholeness, imposing artificial borders and rigid categories that continue to shape the socio-political struggles we face today. Through my work, I seek to reclaim and reweave these fragments—curating histories from the debris of modernity, transforming found materials into symbols of endurance, memory, and renewal.”
— Pardon Mapondera
