Garden of Gratitude for Green Diwali Festival
Umcebo Design will create a ‘Garden of Gratitude’ for the Green Diwali Festival at Mitchell Park from 11 to 13 October.
PLASTIC has been getting a bad rap recently and deservedly so. Durban-based artists Robin Opperman and Ujala Sewpersad from Umcebo Design have made it their lifelong mission to re-purpose and recycle plastic into creative artwork.
The dynamic duo will create a ‘Garden of Gratitude’ for the Green Diwali Festival, which will be held at Mitchell Park from 11 to 13 October.
One of the themes for the festival is sustainable living. The Garden of Gratitude will be made from recycled, reclaimed and repurposed materials.
“The ‘Garden of Gratitude’ expresses gratitude for the amazing environment we live in and hopefully a greater consciousness that we are the custodians of this gift and that we need to protect and treasure it, given the current climate change crisis. We aim to take plastic out of the environment and make something beautiful for people to buy and appreciate,” said Robin.
The garden will serve to educate visitors to the festival on recycling and re-purposing.
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“The flowers we are creating out of recycled bottles, wire, beats and bottle tops as well as aluminium rod off cuts which have been donated to us, go from the highly ‘pimped’ to more modest, and all of them will be unique and unusual. Once again this is a collaboration between us and the community who donate all our materials. We will be paying homage to the environment through this project. People are concerned and want to make a difference, and this is one of the ways we are doing this. The spirit of Diwali is about inclusivity, we all have a link to its core values, and people can take part either by viewing the flowers or even buying them to display in their homes,” said Robin.
The ‘Garden of Gratitude’, is just one of many innovative concepts in the planning for Green Diwali. More will be revealed as progress is made.
The Green Diwali Festival is a non-profit initiative funded by the community of Durban. Should you have idea’s to enhance the Green Diwali Festival or contribute in cash or kind, send a WhatsApp message to Anivesh on 083 778 1991.
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