Waste Not, Want Not? Investigating Economic Frameworks of Garbage as a Medium in Contemporary Mozambican Urban Art

Abstract

This article investigates the economic frameworks of garbage as an art medium. Using art made from recycled materials as a tool, individual case studies of contemporary Mozambican urban artists are presented to explore how and why these artists use recyclia to create distinctly Mozambican art. This examination foregrounds economic issues associated with artistic practices, including implications for financial stability, commercial aspects, and the ways in which intrinsic value and meanings become associated with debris as it is transformed into art. Analyses of artists who come from vastly different social, economic, and educational backgrounds will provide a glimpse into the profitability of detritus as an artistic medium in Mozambique.

Notes

1 I am grateful to Sylvester Ogbechie for making the observation that this notion of extraction from original contexts of use is a paramount requirement for transformation of objects into art within the museum context. See Philip Fisher, Making and Effacing Art, 1991.

2 David Doris used similar theoretical frameworks with his interpretation of Yoruba Aale constructs that link recycled materials to create a larger message. Although the contexts of contemporary Mozambican artists and Aale's forms are quite dissimilar, they share a commonality in their use of recyclia to project inherent meanings.

3 Associação Núcleo de Arte is the oldest artists' cooperative in Mozambique, begun by the Portuguese in the 1920s/1930s. I discuss this artists' space in “Conceptual, Temporal, and Tangible: Discursive Spaces of Contemporary Art in Mozambique” (Schwartzott, 2014).

4 I heartily thank my assistant Goba, who has proven a knowledgeable authority, translator, tour guide, photographer, advisor, and friend during my continued fieldwork in Mozambique (2008–present).

5 Zeferino Chicuamba (Zeferino), interview, Maputo, Mozambique, November 19, 2010.

6 Zeferino, interview, Maputo, Mozambique, March 8, 2011.

7 Zeferino, interview, Maputo, Mozambique, March 8, 2011.

8 Zeferino, interview, Maputo, Mozambique, March 8, 2011.

9 Zeferino, interview, Maputo, Mozambique, March 8, 2011.

10 Zeferino, interview, Maputo, Mozambique, March 8, 2011.

11 Zeferino, interview, Maputo, Mozambique, November 19, 2010.

12 I discuss Mozambican receptions to art in “Conceptual, Temporal, and Tangible: Discursive Spaces of Contemporary Art in Mozambique” (Schwartzott, 2014).

13 I thank Sylvester Ogbechie for crystallizing this theme that is apparent in artists such as Zeferino, who create art with the intent to sell that derives largely from the pervasive connotations between garbage and art in contemporary African art. Seen here in the lesser known art of Zeferino and the globally known artist El Anatsui, whose intense international fame draws from the same basic assumptions, which sometimes supports negative presumptions and stereotypes surrounding poverty in Africa.

14 This area originally housed the Lourenço Marques city dump until the mid-1960s when it reached capacity. At this time the Hulene Dump was built, and garbage disposal for Maputo was transferred there.

15 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique, August 5, 2011.

16 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique, August 5, 2011.

17 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique. August 5, 2011.

18 Domingos, personal communication, August 14, 2013.

19 Domingos, personal communication, August 14, 2013.

20 BCI Mediateca is a multimedia library and arts venue that provides dedicated exhibition spaces for artists. It is sponsored by Mozambique's second-largest banking corporation, Banco Comercial e de Investimentos, a commercial and investment banking facility.

21 Since I began interviewing Mozambican artists regarding their use of recyclia as media in their work, I have heard many artists complain that they end up actually losing money in order to create art. A shared sentiment between all these artists maintains that it is their sheer love of making art (from recycled materials particularly) that fuels their desire to continue spending money to exhibit and create their art made from garbage.

22 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique. January 4, 2013.

23 I asked Domingos if there was significance in the fact that he had created this donkey with six legs. He responded that there was no significance—“Same like Picasso says—to bring myths to the head,” January 4, 2013.

24 Shangaan/Shangana is an indigenous Mozambican language from the Bantu family with Tsonga roots. Shangana is predominantly spoken in southern Mozambique, encompassing the capital of Maputo, in the Maputo region.

25 To my pleasant surprise, I once observed a trova with the entire metal body of a Volkswagen Beetle automobile balanced on it.

26 My desire to create a contextual framework for recycled materials in Mozambique led me to study the varied waste streams of garbage to determine its different paths before/if it is selected to become media for art. To understand such contact points of detritus, I interviewed municipal directors, administrators, and consultants of solid waste management, public and private garbage collectors, and owners, operators, and workers at recycling facilities. Visits to solid waste containers, dump sites, and interviews with workers and independent entrepreneurs in the informal sector who buy and sell recycled materials allows me to analyze the course of an object's history, thereby exploring the everyday aspect of recycling in Mozambique.

27 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique, September 1, 2011.

28 I thank Sylvester Orbechie for pointing out that the use of animals to convey symbolic messages is common in contemporary art from this region, such as those of the Poto Poto School of the Congo, popular painting from Nigeria, and in the works of many contemporary South African artists.

29 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique, September 1, 2011.

30 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique, January 4, 2013.

31 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique, January 4, 2013.

32 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique, January 4, 2013.

33 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique, January 4, 2013.

34 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique, January 4, 2013.

35 Domingos, interview, Maputo (Aeroporto), Mozambique, January 4, 2013.

36 Thanks to Jordan Fenton for crystallizing this point in his editorial review of this article.

37 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique, November 18, 2010.

38 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique. November 18, 2010.

39 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique. November 18, 2010.

40 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique. November 18, 2010.

41 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique. November 18, 2010.

42 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique, August 19, 2011.

43 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique. November 18, 2010.

44 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique. November 18, 2010.

45 Butcheca, interview, Maputo Mozambique. August 15, 2009.

46 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique, November 18, 2010.

47 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique. November 18, 2010.

48 Butcheca's curious lack of interest in the symbolism, imagery, and overall meaning of his artworks in deference to his greater interest in the process and technique of combining recycled and media materials becomes increasingly apparent through my continued discussion of Butcheca and his artworks.

49 2M is a popular beer in Mozambique, distinguished by its bright red label and bottle cap.

50 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique November 18, 2010.

51 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique November 18, 2010.

52 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique November 18, 2010.

53 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique November 18, 2010.

54 Butcheca, interview, Maputo, Mozambique November 18, 2010.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amy Schwartzott

Amy Schwartzott ([email protected]) received her PhD from the University of Florida in 2014. An ethnographic investigation of recyclia used by Mozambican artists is presented in her dissertation, Weapons and Refuse as Media: The Potent Politics of Recycling in Contemporary Mozambican Urban Arts. This research resulted in a Centre for Conflict Studies Fellowship and two Fulbright awards. Recently authored publications in international journals and volumes include Tydskrif vir Letterkunde/Journal for Literary Studies and Representations of Reconciliation: Art and Trauma in Africa. Ms. Schwartzott is currently Assistant Professor of Art History and Curator of University Galleries at North Carolina A&T State University.

Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/rcin.