Bio
Born in 1998, raised and based in London (UK), Zethu Maseko’s practice explores water as an archive of lived experience, feelings, memories, and knowledge. Through textiles such as weaving, tufting, stitching, dyeing, sculpture, and moving images, Maseko examines the migration of water through bodies and landscapes, creating symbols that articulate a complex heritage in a non-binary visual language. Her work surfaces pre- and post-colonial experiences, redacted histories, hydrofeminist ideas, relationships to land, and rituals of healing and repair.

Maseko also engages with deep listening and sonic experiments to research specific locations, mimicking bird songs and imagining prehistoric vocalisations. With roots in Southern Africa and Cornwall, her practice incorporates spiritual traditions, using traditional healing salts and foraged pigments such as ochre, and referencing organic forms like seaweed, flora, and fauna.

 

Education

First Class BA (Hons) Fine Art
2017–2020 | Goldsmiths, University of London

 

Residencies

• Rame Projects, Cornwall (2022-2023)

• The Workshop, Cape Town (2021)

• PopArt, Johannesburg (2018)

 

Awards, Grants, and Bursaries

• Arts Council England | DYCP Lottery Fund | 2024

• The Nicholas and Andrei Tooth Prize | 2020

• Young Achiever Future Leader Award from The Universal Peace Federation | 2019

• Tuwezeshe Akina Dada Fellowship Grant | 2018

• Santander Student Impact Award | 2018

• Peter Stanley Prize | 2017​

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Public Collections

• Government Art Collection (UK)

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