One Man's Rubbish Is Another Man's Art Mbongeni Buthelezi Text: mediaclubsouthafrica.com Images © Mbongeni Buthelezi
South African artist Mbongeni Buthelezi recycles plastic litter, adds some heat, and melts it onto his canvases to create beautiful pieces of art. A regular exhibitor on both the local and international art scenes for almost two decades, he has been hailed as one of the country’s most innovative artists. “I (use rubbish to) create something beautiful from it. I collect something that has no value and give it new life. That’s what we can do with ourselves and our lives,” is how artist Mbongeni Buthelezi introduces himself on his website (www.mbongeni-buthelezi.com), and for 16 years he’s made a name for himself as one of South Africa’s boldest and most original artists. He chose to work with plastic during his art school days in order to draw attention to the medium, and as a way to stand out in the often crowded local art scene. The tangible method of sculpting plastic onto canvas was also a way for him to work through his creative process. He told Euronews recently: “With watercolour and other mediums that I have experimented with in the past, there was a time where I felt that I was hitting the ceiling and was not growing anymore. I wanted to be noticed and
I wanted to attract attention, because I knew that I was moving into a career where you have to be really special to be able to even make a living out of it.” Buthelezi has been a regular and popular exhibitor on the South African art circuit for years, and has garnered positive attention from international galleries and art schools. Art lovers are intrigued by his use of discarded consumer plastic to craft vibrant and engrossing African story-portraits. In these works, he makes bold statements about the world as he sees it, addressing both social and environmental issues. An article in Live Out Loud on Buthelezi’s work described his work thus: “Reflecting humanity’s often detrimental impact on the environment, his original use of discarded objects to depict an often forgotten group of people truly sets him apart.”
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