MBONGENI RICHMAN BUTHELEZI (b. 1965)
Mine Disaster, until when
1994
etching
edition 65/65
45 x 37.5 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Mbongeni Richman Buthelezi studied at the African Institute of Art, the Johannesburg Art Foundation and the University of the Witwatersrand.
Featuring figurative and non-figurative subjects, his work is fashioned from recycled plastic, which he melts with a hot air gun and applies as paint. With the plastic-waste crisis escalating globally, Buthelezi uses his work to both highlight and combat the issue.
He grew up in rural KwaZulu-Natal. ‘My father’s animals, the cattle, were an important part of my life,’ he says. But not everything in this rural setting was natural. Plastic litter was so common in grazing areas that it became an unwelcome part of the cows’ regular diet. ‘We would see these cows die because they had eaten plastics,’ he says.
While at college, Buthelezi began collecting plastic litter to ‘paint’ with in lieu of expensive oil paints and developed a technique using an electric heat gun that produces hot air to melt the plastic and then apply it to a recycled canvas – a less noxious, more environmentally friendly method than using flames to melt plastic.
Throughout his career he has used his art to educate and begin conversations on global plastic waste. ‘The world we live in today can offer us everything we need to make art without manufacturing more,’ he says.
‘My figurative subject matter is the physical condition of the township way of life – which is one of survival. These experiences are sometimes interpreted in a non-figurative style depicted in organic forms and shapes taken from human forms like arms, hands, torsos, etc., as well as landscapes.’
Buthelezi lives and works in Johannesburg, and had a studio as part of the now-legendary August House artist community in inner-city Doornfontein.
He has held exhibitions, participated in festivals, led workshops, and taken up artist residencies in countries including Germany, the USA, Barbados, Egypt, Australia, and Saudi Arabia.
Buthelezi’s work has been featured in articles for Art Daily, CNN and the Mail & Guardian.