Purch, Garbo, Goyle, Street Art
All over town
By Thubelihle Mathonsi
You have probably seen art installations around Makhanda as you walk around during the Festival. Behind them is a collective people interested in keeping the town and planet at large a liveable space for its occupants. When it all started I had no idea I would end up in Fingo in a building full of plastics ready to be recycled, talking to Zwelinzima Somyali – known to have a green thumb. A community member walks up to me as I am talking to him, I don’t catch his name, but he chimes in saying, “the reason we have this hall is because of him” and then he walks away. It turns out we are standing on a former illegal dumping sight now and there are plants growing in some old tyres, in a bid to curb the issue of illegal dumpsites and deter people from dumping trash everywhere.
But here is how I ended up there.
I walked around with Michelle Lowry and Obi (Obusitswe Birdking) and as we got to the first installation made of bottle caps and recycled and reused plastics, Lowry says, ”We only have one planet.” She then tells me of the different places they have cleaned up. We climb into a car that needs to be pushed in order to start. She later explains that she has been using it to collect some of the recycling materials because there are not a lot of resources to help Team recycle stay afloat. They also collaborate with local artists. The collection is named Purch Garbo Goyles: purch from purchase, garbo from garbage, and goyles from gargoyles believed to be devouring giants.
We arrive at the next stop at Village Green and there is another installation there. It is inspired by an amount of e-waste, CDs, speakers, an old washing machine base and bicycle wheels. “Recycling e-waste is not as easy there aren’t many companies that can do that here in SA,” Lowry says. There is a red plastic container in front of the installation and people have been putting their cans in there. The sculptures have brought a necessary awareness. Obi explains to me how different materials get disposed, including the recyclables and non-recyclable material. A person walks by and throws a polystyrene container in the wrong bin. He opens the bin and puts it in the correct bin. ”Polystyrene breaks into small pieces, the fish eat it and it ends on your plate, so you end up eating micro-plastic,” he says.
Hilton Haakonsen, the project manager, comes up to where we are standing. He’s been running the project since 2022. “There are 1800 people, we have recycling teams, there is one in Joza and one in town. Anything that can be recycled gets sorted and will go to Luvuyo Hall,” he says. Everything gets used from there. From this material they can make pavers from plastic and glass and even reclaimed tiles. At this stage they are able to recycle between 30 and 35% of everything brought. “If 30 tonnes comes in, we are probably recycling 10 tonnes,” he says.
That is also how they found all the material to make the sculptures. They also work with 28 schools and have composting facilities at the Black Power Station. This compost is used to grow seedlings — they have produced up to 40 000 seedlings — and they distribute these to schools with feeding schemes who then grow their own vegetables, like cabbages and onions. They also try to provide meals for five different clinics. around Makhanda. This project has been going for three years and 4 750 people have been helped.
“Recycling is a process,” Lowry says. She and Obi have also been doing workshops with kids and do creative things like making puppets, doing puppet shows and seeing different ways waste can be used and help the planet. ”Sometimes they mistake me for a madman,” says Obi.
We move to the Tin Man sculpture from tins they collected from a factory in town. Then we move to the Container Man “who talks about humans and how they have caused harm”. “But the art is speaking,” says Obi, “we need to contain the man from causing more harm. Only plastic will be contained in the land,” he said rhyming his speech.
Finally we go to the last two sculptures, poetic Amanzi, a reminder of where the plastic could end up – in the water. This is a reminder to check twice before buying plastic as Obi asks: ”Have you seen the landfills?”
And this is how I ended up at Fingo. It was all because of Art.
