How Kumbirai Makumbe’s love for digital matter birthed their future-focused practice

Working with audio-visual digital illustration, video, imagery and physical sculpture, the new media artist explores infinite future possibilities.

There is no future without dreaming, but how do we dream it up? At the intersection of sculpture, audio-visual digital illustration, image and video lies Kumbirai Makumbe, a new media artist from Zimbabwe and based in east London. With a practice dedicated to what they call a “needed future”, Kumbirai interrogates the “multidimensionality of Blackness, the in-between and the transgender gaze”. To do so, they use a number of processes such as 3D printing, 3D scanning, software and game engines to explore different ways of living and being, which often challenge our understanding of each other and the world around us.

With influences such as Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, Black Quantum Futurism and bell hooks, both the material and conceptual elements of their work come as no surprise. But they seek to take it a step further by blurring, distorting and reimagining these ideas. “There is a relationship between the digital and physical and I repeatedly bring elements from the digital into physical spaces,” they tell us. “I’m also enticed by the malleability of digital matter and its infinite possibilities,” they add. Having a passion for both spaces, Kumbirai’s work doesn't just dream up a needed future, but it also shows us how the digital sphere can influence the physical.

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: Still From Evo’s Turn (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe)

Above
Left

Kumbirai Makumbe: Still From Living Doesn't Mean You're Alive, Commissioned by Dateagle Art and Hervisions for Control The Virus Vol. 3 - It Hurts But I Think It's Supposed To (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe)

Right

Kumbirai Makumbe: Still From Living Doesn't Mean You're Alive, Commissioned by Dateagle Art and Hervisions for Control The Virus Vol. 3 - It Hurts But I Think It's Supposed To (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe)

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: Still From Living Doesn't Mean You're Alive, Commissioned by Dateagle Art and Hervisions for Control The Virus Vol. 3 - It Hurts But I Think It's Supposed To (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe)

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: Still From Living Doesn't Mean You're Alive, Commissioned by Dateagle Art and Hervisions for Control The Virus Vol. 3 - It Hurts But I Think It's Supposed To (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe)

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: Still From Living Doesn't Mean You're Alive, Commissioned by Dateagle Art and Hervisions for Control The Virus Vol. 3 - It Hurts But I Think It's Supposed To (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe)

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: It Was A Mix Of Things, Arebyte Gallery for Powerplay (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe, 2020)

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: It Was A Mix Of Things, Arebyte Gallery for Powerplay (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe, 2020)

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: Them (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe, 2021)

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: The Gate, An Element of It Was A Mix Of Things, Commissioned by Arebyte Gallery for Powerplay (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe, 2020)

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: Still From 'Living Doesn't Mean You're Alive. Commissioned by Dateagle Art and Hervisions for Control The Virus Vol. 3 - Hope #2 (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe)

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: Living Doesn't Mean You're Alive in Futures Past, Arebyte Gallery (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe, 2022)

Above

Kumbirai Makumbe: Pre-intertopia, Visual Carlow for Speech Sounds (Copyright © Kumbirai Makumbe, 2022)

Share Article

About the Author

Yaya Azariah Clarke

Yaya (they/them) was previously a staff writer at It’s Nice That. With a particular interest in Black visual culture, they have previously written for publications such as WePresent, alongside work as a researcher and facilitator for Barbican and Dulwich Picture Gallery.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.