Dustbin artist helps keep PTA clean
He had his first solo exhibition in Indonesia.
A Pretoria artist is to create helping a clean environment by making art.
Environmental artist Tshepo DD Maponyane creates what he calls “dustbin art”, to make saving the environment cool for residents.
Environmental art is a range of artistic practices encompassing both historical approaches to nature in art, and more recent ecological and politically motivated types of work.
Maponyane said that the project was personal for him.
“I do this as an ode to my mother. She was a domestic worker and raised me to clean up after myself in whatever instance,” he said.
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In 2010, Maponyane received the Darmasiswa scholarship to attended the Institut Seni Indonesia Denpasar (ISI Denpasar) in Bali, Indonesia.
In an effort to raise money for the flight to Indonesia, he started painting people’s dustbins for a fee.
He held his first solo exhibition, Dawn of a New Era, in Indonesia.
In 2012, Maponyane did his art residency at KUD Mreža, a Ljubljana, a Slovenia-based artist association.
It is here where he had his second solo exhibition at the hostel Celica.
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He had his first South African exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum in 2013.
He now owns an art studio in Waterkloof.
“I wish people could realise that this is the only planet we have. Littering and pollution are the result of ignorance and carelessness,” Maponyane said.
At the moment, he was doing commercial work to raise money for his next exhibition which would use street art coupled with nature.
“Pretoria has an abundance of Jacarandas. When they’re in bloom, it’s an amazing sight. I want to use that to show the importance of protecting the environment.”
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