FINE ARTS GRADUATE ◆ BATIK & TIE-DYE SPECIALIST ◆ ROOM WALK-THROUGH STAGE ◆ SENSORY TEXTURE DESIGN ◆ EXPERIMENTAL INSTALLATION ◆
FINE ARTS GRADUATE ◆ BATIK & TIE-DYE SPECIALIST ◆ ROOM WALK-THROUGH STAGE ◆ SENSORY TEXTURE DESIGN ◆ EXPERIMENTAL INSTALLATION ◆
URBAN SPACES
TATENDA KIMBERLEY GAKANJE
Urban Spaces is an interactive installation designed as either an indoor room or outdoor walk-through environment. Participants enter two compact (approximately) 3m × 3m spaces and move through immersive atmospheres shaped by textures and projection. Using soft, smooth materials such as plastic bags and cloth, the environments invite touch and sensory exploration, encouraging participants to notice how identity and belonging can feel different across the city.
Urban Spaces reimagines the urban experience by questioning how we relate to our surroundings: whether we feel crowded, overlooked, protected, or free. One environment represents high-density urban life, where materials cluster and projections feel tightly layered, suggesting closeness and pressure. The second environment represents low-density urban life, with more open arrangement, calmer textures, and projections that disperse, creating space for reflection.
MEDIUM
INTERACTIVE TEXTURE INSTALLATION
YEAR
2026
COLLECTIVE
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ZIMBABWE ALUMNI
TERRITORY
HARARE, ZIMBABWE
THEMES
DENSITY CONTRAST / SENSORY TEXTURE / BELONGING
CREATIVE PROCESS
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Tatenda Kimberley Gakanje
Tatenda Kimberley Gakanje — HARARE, ZIMBABWE
atenda Kimberly Gakanje is a Zimbabwean visual artist who graduated from the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in 2022 with a National Diploma of Fine Arts. For Gakanje, art is not simply the production of images, but a way of navigating life: a process shaped by emotions, memory, doubt, play and transformation.
Her practice has evolved into a distinctive visual language that weaves together traditional textile techniques such as batik and tie-dye with contemporary painting, and installations. Her works unfold as a personal diary of becoming, in which colour, materials and intuition record the shifting inner states of everyday life.
