When Ivorian artist Aristide Koume combs the seaside with a big trash bag to gather tossed flip-flops and different footwear, he realizes that different beachgoers is perhaps treating him as a determined road service provider or probably a madman. take away.
Little do they know that 26-year-old Koume shreds rubber and plastic soles into items price as much as $1,000, which he then collects into massive collages.
“This is garbage that people have thrown into the sea and the sea brings it back to us because it doesn’t want to,” he mentioned on a seaside in Abidjan, the industrial capital of Ivory Coast.
Their expertise is each inexpensive and ecologically acutely aware. (supply: Reuters)
“I make artwork out of used footwear … It’s a technique to give life to the objects that litter the seashores.
“Sitting on the ground of a slim road, Koume engraves figures, letters and faces in rubber soles, which he has salvaged from the seaside. He makes his personal paint by grinding the scraps left within the pile of Technicolor pigments.
Their expertise is each inexpensive and ecologically acutely aware.
Kouma, 26, turns flotsam into artifacts price as much as $1,000 by reducing rubber and plastic soles into items, which he collects into massive collages. (supply: Reuters)
Plastic and different waste – together with massive quantities of flip-flops misplaced or thrown away – are scattered throughout a lot of West Africa’s city seashores, as waste dumped in metropolis canals is carried into the ocean, then transferred by the tide. with is carried again to the shore.
In just some quick years, Koume’s authentic strategies have attracted the eye of Ivory Coast’s artwork institution and his works grasp in galleries at dwelling and overseas.
They vary from massive portraits of civil rights and political leaders like Nelson Mandela to abstracts scary social ills, together with local weather change, COVID-19 and wealth inequality.
environmental pondering
On a current afternoon in a classy neighborhood in southern Abidjan, lots of Koume’s works have been hung in a gallery frequented by overseas artwork collectors.
In just some quick years, Koume’s authentic strategies have attracted the eye of Ivory Coast’s artwork institution and his works grasp in galleries at dwelling and overseas. (supply: Reuters)
Its director enthusiastically steered patrons towards three massive collages, every consisting of about 140 miniatures, carved from flip-flops that Koumé had discarded.
According to the United Nations, about 13 million tons of plastic waste are dumped into the world’s oceans yearly. Africa’s two worst offenders, Ghana and Nigeria, share the identical Atlantic shoreline as Comme Combes seaside for provides.
“My goal is to make people question their environment in order to make a better life,” Koume mentioned, glancing significantly on the faces of plastic.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
