Recycling Art: Art with a difference

By Evans Dakwa and Misheck Shambare

When you open your soft drink and throw the bottle top away or when you finish drinking your beer from a can and throw it away, have you ever thought that these seemingly obsolete materials can be assets that can be used productively by other people?

In bars, cafes, restaurants and even on the streets cans and bottle tops can be seen scattered all over the place yet some people have mastered the skill of breathing life into the supposedly useless materials through Art.

Mabvuku Disability Art and Craft Centre have managed to come up with the concept that could come in handy towards achieving a cleaner environment using recycling art.

Using discarded materials like bottle tops, beer and soft drinks cans and the notorious bron cleer empty bottles, they have managed to come up with beautiful art pieces that have captured the attention of international buyers. Their innovation has brought together waste management and art, making significant strides towards a clean environment in the process creating employment for less privileged people in the society.

The eight member group which has disabled people amongst its ranks has made an array of artifacts including rubbish bins, handbags, light bulb chandeliers, kids’ toys, tables and chairs using apparently useless materials.

Royt Bisiwasi who is the Director of Mabvuku Disability Art and Craft Centre which showcased their art pieces at the just ended Harare International Festival of Arts (HIFA) said the innovation was inspired by the massive littering in the city and the desire to reduce the scourge by using litter productively.

“Initially we started our art using wire but we then merged with waste materials found scattered everywhere, an idea which received strong support from art passionate people encouraging us and from then on we never looked back,” he said.

Bisiwasi who has been actively involved in Art since 1994 said they get most of the materials they use from restaurants, bars and individuals whom they pay for bringing rubbish materials to them.

On working with disabled people, Bisiwasi said it was proper to include them as he understood their plight in society since his leg was amputated after an accident and to also prove that disability does not necessarily mean inability.

Although there are some local customers, Bisiwasi credited foreigners as the major clienteles of their products.

“The majority of our customers are from the United States of America (USA) and France as most Zimbabweans do not appreciate such type of art coupled by the liquidity crunch in the country,” he said.

He however thanked HIFA for the exposure and going out of their way to link them with new customers as they recorded brisk business during the course of the festival.

The group has taken recycling art to a new level as they have gone to make roof tiles from cans.

“We have managed to make a roof that is made up of empty soft drink and beer cans as tiles at a house in Milton Park suburb of Harare,” said Bisiwasi.

It seems recycling art is gaining popularity in Harare as more artists are coming up and incorporating the idea into their works.

Borrowdale based Jesa Arts which was also exhibiting at the just ended HIFA said they had turned to recycling art as it provided double benefits of being more viable and also keeping the environment clean especially in Harare.

“We saw it fit to turn to recycling Art as a way of keeping our environment clean by using waste material productively whilst making money from less capital by adding value to what some people call useless material,” they said.

Booker Sipeyiye who is Jesa Arts Director under a project dubbed Sunshine Zimbabwe which they are running from Sam Levy’s Village has been at the fore front of training youths as a way of empowering them with skills in the process of creating employment for young people.

“Our country at the moment is experiencing an economic meltdown and as a result many youths are jobless which made me to include them in my art as a way of empowering by training them and also to spread the idea across the country since we cannot eradicate the problem of rubbish in Harare alone.

“We need as many people as possible to come on board,” he said.

Environmental Management Agency (EMA) Public Relations Officer Steady Kangata appreciated recycling art as it goes an extra mile towards their quest to for a cleaner environment.

“We are really thrilled by the efforts of these artists in coming up with such initiatives as they go a long way in the cleaning of the environment as well as saving the resources of the country,” he said.