Kenyan 'junk artist' recycles rubbish into art

World
Europe

00:46

In a room that is both home and studio, Evans Ngure works on a sculpture, a fantastical fish fabricated from found objects: wooden spoons, broken scissors and an old machete.

Long before upcycling became a hipster mantra, Ngure turned his Nairobi apartment into a workshop, and junk into art, his choice of artistic expression echoing a necessary developing world culture of re-use.

After trying his hand at painting and graphic design, Ngure became a "junk artist" as an act of reciprocity and community.

"My goal is to have an impact on society, from the ground where I live to everybody that comes in contact with my art," he said.

Sometimes he forages for raw materials himself, sometimes his neighbors bring him items, sometimes buyers hand over bits and pieces.

People "end up seeing my work, they relate to it, so they take part by giving me stuff that I can use," he said.

Rubbish, resurrected

The artist's imprint is clear on the roof of the four-story apartment building where he lives in the north of the Kenyan capital: reclaimed art is scattered about, a strip curtain made from hundreds of buttons leads inside.

To live from his art, Ngure makes and sells everything from small items of jeweler, to large pieces of art. Wire pendants, earrings and bracelets sell for five to 20 US dollars while bigger works and sculptures cost hundreds.

"Mostly it is the Kenyans that buy from me, especially the jeweler," he said, of his clientele, who visit him at home.

He takes out a brooch from a paper bag. It consists of a two-euro coin hanging from a golden wire, with beads and a miniature Eiffel Tower.

Evans Ngure's work includes jewelry but also large pieces of art, made from discarded items. /AFP Photo

These are quick to produce and Ngure can make them in a matter of hours, but sculptures can take several days.

Ngure imagines himself resurrecting unwanted objects, and is constantly on the lookout, whether wandering downtown or scouring a rubbish dump.

"I collect them from different areas...from the ground even when I am walking in town...from friends as donations or from my customers."

"I also have a landfill where I go to collect, even around here I have a place where I collect," said the 29-year-old.

Closest by is an informal dump spilling across a dirt road between a pair of buildings near to his home. Here, Ngure salvages discarded plastic toys and tin cans, leaving with his arms full.

Evans Ngure is constantly on the lookout for materials for making his artworks, whether wandering downtown or scouring a rubbish dump. /AFP Photo

"I am collecting whatever material I find... This is part of a motorcycle, so, by the look of this, it will end up as a very amazing sculpture," he said, with an enthusiastic smile, weighing the dented metal in his hands.

Give things a second chance

Determined by the random chance of what Ngure finds, his sculptures have a sometimes surreal style.

"All my life I have been that kid that loves collecting stuff but it never blossomed until I went to campus where we started creating artwork from unconventional materials," said Ngure, who studied painting at Nairobi's Kenyatta University.

"I started adding things into my paintings, like buttons and cutouts from clothes, so that evolved into full collages entirely made from found objects."

As an example, he reached for a peacock, its body made entirely from strips of old leather belts with cutlery for a train.

Recycling has become such a core element of Ngure's life and work that he can't but anthropomorphise the components of his art.

"It is not only people that need second chances but also objects that cannot speak for themselves, they need that second chance: before you trash them, just re-think about them," he said.

The artist also wants to raise awareness about the protection of wildlife by making collages representing animals such as butterflies or ladybugs which he exhibited, with other works, at the British Institute in Eastern Africa, whose headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, a few months ago.

(Top image: Kenyan "junk artist" Evans Ngure makes his sculptures out of found objects. /AFP Photo)

Source(s): AFP