South African Art Times August 2009
13
S A Ar t Times Co n tempo ra ry Arti s t’ s P ro fi l e
MBONGENI BUTHELEZI Staff Writer
room in Soweto and study art at the FUNDA centre. Much like his art, Buthelezi says, “I built my life up out of nothing.”
2009 has been a frenetic year for Mbongeni Buthelezi. The Johannesburg-based artist’s first national touring exhibition opened in May, at the Pretoria Art Museum, and July saw him jetting off to Germany, where he had been invited to the Kunst:Raum Sylt-Quelle Foundation to stay in the foundation’s centre and complete a commission.
Buthelezi’s first big break came when the Plastic Federation of South Africa bought up his entire stock of work, from his room. Then, in 1998, Buthelezi was the artist in residence at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, and since then the offers have been pouring in, Buthelezi exhibiting in Germany, the UK and the US.
Johannesburg audiences may remember Buthelezi’s striking canvasses from the Joburg Art Fair in April. Star of Dr Ralf-P Seippel’s booth, Buthelezi was feted as having developed an entirely new method of painting.
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These days, with the artist’s smallscale works selling in the region of R 17 000, Buthelezi lives in a doublestorey house in Krugersdorp, a far cry from the one-room he rented in Soweto in his student days. He is committed to giving back, however, by conducting recycling workshops, getting children involved in collecting materials for him and teaching.
Yet from a distance, one might mistake Buthelezi’s large-scale works for oil paintings. Rendered in monochromes, sepia tones or in full colour, the images of township life, human forms and landscapes certainly resemble expressionist paintings. These are no ordinary paintings, however, and a closer look betrays them. ‘Plastic on canvas’ or ‘Plastic on plastic’, read the labels, and indeed, it is rubbish which is Buthelezi’s medium of choice. Collecting plastic carrier bags and packaging from supermarkets, restaurants and recycle bins, Buthelezi melts an average of 5000 plastic bags onto each of his canvases using a heat gun. Initially work ing with matches and cigarette lighters, Buthelezi eventually discovered that the heat gun, usually used to strip rather than apply paint, was the perfect instrument for his craft.
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Asked by writer Mmutle Kgokong how he developed the unusual and rather smelly technique, Buthelezi said that his humble beginnings certainly aided the discovery. “Lack of materials was a motivating factor,” says the artist, who began experimenting with discarded plastic when he could no longer afford the watercolours he had been trained to use at FUNDA. “If I was a privileged artist
who had accessibility to traditional art making materials such as oil paints, I would not have discovered the art of plastic painting.” And Buthelezi has certainly had to struggle to reach where he is today. In June, he told Rapport, how, as a young man passionate about art, he left home with just two blankets and a sack of clothing, to live in a
Buthelezi’s travelling show, ‘Imizwa Yami’, which translates as ‘My feelings’ is showing at the Pretoria Art Museum, until 16th August. From there, it will travel to the Sasol Museum in Stellenbosch, the Red Location Museum in Port Elizabeth and Oliewenhuis Museum in Bloemfontein, and continue travelling until 2011. Read and see more work at: www.seippel-gallery.com Or see his work at: Seippel Gallery, Arts on Main, Johannesburg, Sunday 25. July 2009 Photos by Helenus Kruger Artwork courtesy Seippel Gallery
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Artwork illustrated from PAST/PRESENT works by Andrew Verster on view from 12 August to end of October 2009
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