Living amid social and environmental catastrophes requires innovation and creativity to help find solutions, catalyse change, and comfort us in the face of adversity. We are seeing this in the artworld as more and more artists respond to the environmental crisis, rethinking our place in the world and inspiring a change.
Since 2013, Investec Cape Town Art Fair has brought together artists from across Africa and the rest of the world to showcase their work at the largest contemporary art fair in Africa. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the 2023 art fair, which takes place from 17 to 19 February, is centred around the concept of time. According to the fair’s website “this theme is appropriately wide-ranging and encompasses ideas related to the past, present and future, including the ever-important concept of change that comes with the passing of time both for humans and the world around us.”
Here are five artists, exhibiting at the 2023 Investec Art Fair, who creatively repurpose discarded objects.
Michelle Okpare
Living between Nigeria and Ivory Coast, painter and textile artist, Michelle Okpare is deeply inspired by her personal experience and by interactions with others. Michelle uses discarded fabric and lace as well as acrylic paint and crepe paper to create pieces that comment on identity, specifically around constructions of gender in contemporary African culture, mental health and culture.
“The first time I worked with waste lace fabric was when my mentor, Marcellina Akpojotor, gave me a bag of scraps of this beautiful textile and encouraged me to explore it,” Michelle says. She says, “I was drawn to the pattern and designs on the fabrics. But more than that, I was drawn to the cultural significance connected to these textiles.
Having so much material at her disposal, Michelle found inspiration from working with these textiles and being able to save this waste from entering landfills.
Patrick Tagoe-Turkson
Ghanaian multi-disciplinary artist, Patrick Tagoe-Turkson, uses discarded flip-flops to create his art. Growing up near the coast, he would often see plastic debris floating in the ocean. Saddened by this reality, Patrick decided to use this waste in his art. Patrick collects these flip-flops from the beaches of southern Ghana and creatively repurposes them beyond recognition. He explains that, “The ritualistic processes of collecting, cleaning, cutting and mending the waste material psychologically helps me better reflect on humanity’s place in the universe.
“My art is inspired by the changing forces of nature and culture of the environment where I live in Ghana,” Patrick says.
Gina van der Ploeg
“There’s so much richness in materials that already exist,” Cape Town-based textile artist and sculptor, Gina van der Ploeg says. Gina creates sculptures using home-grown fibres along with textile waste that she sources from local industrial looms.
Coming from a creative family – her mother is a potter – Gina felt art was a natural career path to follow, especially as she finds art the most meaningful way to engage with the world. Gina was drawn to textile waste early in her career when she became aware of its environmental impact and wanted to use the resources at hand. Gina says, “There is something amazing about materials that carry with them their own history.
“Knowing that it has lived a life before it reached me is so incredible,” she says.
Gina learnt to weave and farm during a three-month residency she completed in Japan in 2019. After returning from her residency, Gina started growing flax and making her own textiles. “Witnessing the process of textile-making, from beginning to end, is very inspiring,” Gina says.
Maurice Mbikayi
Using electronic waste, Maurice Mbikayi questions society’s growing dependence on technology and how African mining industries, such as cobalt mining, power the production of technological devices.
Maurice explores how the exploitation of labour, extraction of resources and dumping of waste in African countries is a reality for many African communities. Disposed technology in vast scrap yards poses a threat to residents by releasing hazardous chemicals and pollutants.
Maurice uses this e-waste to create artworks and sculptures that speak to the harmful effects of the industry. But, Maurice’s work is not pessimistic. Instead, he imagines a world where e-waste is not dumped, but creatively recycled.
Depicting figures who have created radical change and reinvention amid social and climate catastrophes, Maurice hopes to use his work to create inspiring images of hope for a better future.
Julio Rizhi
“I hope my work sparks conversation and helps us each to think differently about how our daily actions affect the collective,” says Zimbabwean artist, Julio Rizhi.
Julio’s series of work titled, What is on the Inside, will be exhibited at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2023. Using waste that he picks up from his neighbourhood streets, this showcase explores themes of hyper-consumerism and its negative impacts on the environment. He says, “As an artist, I feel a sense of responsibility to make positive change in the world.”
Julio melts down plastic waste and creates sculptures with wire mesh. His dystopian pieces are spray painted in bright colours in contrast to the dark themes of his work, creating a metaphor for the promises of a better future that are never delivered. “At the heart of my practice is a desire to work sustainably and compassionately toward a better future,” he adds.
- For information and to buy tickets visit the art fair’s (17 – 19 February) website here
- Cover image: Artwork by Julio Rizhi
- Images: Supplied by artists and sourced online
