"The artist shapes the beautiful and useful out of the dump heap of human life."
– Claude Lévi-Strauss
My work addresses the possibility of reinvention and second chances—for objects, ourselves and our planet.
In my work, recycled plastic lids and bottle tops are reshaped and transposed to speak to the environmental challenges we face in a way that is bright, engaging and playful. Mimicking natural objects, my work juxtaposes the concept of “natural” landscapes with artificial plastic destined to be entombed in the earth that it subsequently pollutes, in the seas, where it poses great threats to marine life; or even in the water supply where it enters our bodies as nano and microplastics, the health risks of which are only now being studied.
In my work, what would otherwise be waste plastic is instead shaped into objects that are decorative on one level but also loaded with environmental meanings, last of all they function as a kind of “welcoming” warning of the risks created by our consumerist societies.
Various international agencies—not only environmental agencies but also development, infrastructure and health agencies such as the WHO—have stated that plastic waste is at a crisis level in many places on the African continent and poses very real threats besides just pollution itself. For example, there are vast dumping sites on the outskirts of various African cities, where non-biodegradable plastics are dumped together with organic waste, attracting vast numbers of vermin. The sheer scale of these toxic environments is of great concern to health officials who believe that it is almost inevitable that novel antigens will be passed on to the human population living cheek by jowl with this festering waste through a process of zoonosis.
I see my practice as one that is part of a recognised and growing movement in African art where artists such as Pascale Marthine Tayou, Ifeoma U. Anyaeji, Fabrice Monteiro or Mbongeni Buthelezi both address the plastics crisis in their work and/or use waste plastics as an artistic medium in the creation of the work itself.
I am inspired by the concept of the bricoleur, working with the found objects to create something novel, something unexpected. My work is heavily influenced by the work of the Italian Futurist movement of the early 20th century and, in particular, its embracing of materials arising from the industrial age. A second strong influence on my work is the later Arte Povera movement of the 1960s that focussed on using so-called “poor materials” precisely because of the political latency of materials not traditionally considered to have any value by the cultural elite.
The influences of these European movements on my practice is not simply a Eurocentric conceit: growing up in Western Europe, I was fortunate enough to have access to some of the world’s best museums and was entranced by the power of art from an early age, especially the art of the 20th century. But, I was born in and lived in South Africa for most of my life, so it is only natural that I look to the cultural heritage and political realities of my homeland in my work.
I believe that the environmental crisis is the single gravest threat to our planet and South Africa’s unique place on it. It seeps into being part of the problem even when facing other challenges such as health, economy or education. How, for example, are rural schools going to function when temperatures in classrooms become threatening to human life? Or, what happens to our fisheries when plastics so pollute the sea that entire ecosystems collapse?
Currently, in my work, I am exploring how we pay the price for our dependence on the vast industrial-energy complex, in the form of environmental degradation and global warming. I choose to work in a medium that encapsulates this terrible Faustian pact: plastics.