Iove

I am constantly seeking to spread LOVE.

I create, connect, and organise with an intention

-to plant seeds of LOVE

-to birth LOVE

-to tap into the LOVE that resides in us

why Iove?

I firmly believe LOVE is the answer to life's big questions

Being a woman of faith, living in a world filled with so much despair and hopelessness

Intentionally seeking and practicing LOVE, keeps me hopeful in a challenging world

I make work that unsettles comfortable narratives and opens space for voices pushed to the margins. My practice moves across making, performance, curation, storytelling and collaborative projects to interrogate race, migration, gender, asylum, and the lived realities of refugees and marginalized artists. I use embodied performance, archival fragments, and community-led processes to create encounters that are visceral and generative. My work refuses neat resolution; it insists on complexity, on the friction between memory and policy, intimacy and public spectacle. I invite audiences to witness and to act, to feel the cost of silence and the possibility of repair. I am driven by the conviction that art can be a site of testimony, transformation, and collective care.

my journey

I grew up in a township in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. Early on I was surrounded by creativity. My mother was a highly skilled seamstress and my father was a civil servant and self educated dramatist, directing and producing plays. Little did l know that my faith and my exposure to creativity would become my key tools to survive. In 2001 I migrated to the UK. Unusual for a migrant from my background, I chose to enter the arts. It was the arts and my faith that helped me through the most challenging times of my life, resisting and overcoming domestic and mental abuse, single motherhood and financial crisis. The experiences of my past, present and a longing for a better future play a big role in how l approach my practice.

I am the first black woman to design Queen Elizabeth II Commonwealth Games 2022 Baton: it’s the last Queens Baton. Voted modern day Lady Godiva, I have sat on multiple boards, I have been featured in Design Week, BBC, ITV, and multiple international broadcasts. As a TEDx speaker I have addressed migration and abuse. My collaborations, exhibitions and curations across the UK, with notable designers, social purpose led organisations, universities like UAL, Newcastle, Birmingham and Warwick, have been designed using love as a tool and approach.

‘Who is telling my story?’ is one of the questions that inspired me to found maokwo, an arts organisation that creates pathways and builds legacies for marginalised migrant communities. One of my role is mentoring artists from migrant communities, resulting in mentees securing jobs, enrolling in universities, awarded scholarships, launching businesses, & publishing books.