India generates over 60 million tonnes of waste every year, of which only 60% is collected and only 15% of that processed. The rest either finds its way into landfills, or lies discarded about in our cities. In the last few years, artists around the world have taken it upon themselves to reuse, recycle or upcycle waste materials to make art, fashion, jewellery or other things of beauty out of it. Here are some of those inspiring individuals.
Instead of adding to the existing waste, or ignoring it, artists like Manish Nai, who has now had solo shows around the world, give waste a new, sophisticated, form for everyone to admire and enjoy. Around 2000, Nai used to sometimes accompany his father, who had a business of packing materials in Mangaldas Market in Mumbai, to work. Seeing all the extra cardboard and packing material lying around, he started thinking of ways of reusing it, and eventually the discarded materials found a place in his sculptures. By 2010, he had made a habit of using waste packing materials in his paintings and sculptures.
Nai then turned his attention to waste cloth. “I used to see old clothes discarded and decided to reuse these in small sculptures,” he says. He uses threads from jute waste to make patterns in his paintings or to create thread sculptures. He now reuses newspapers, paper, boxes, used clothes from relatives and friends, even old installations… “The idea is to minimise consumption – and repurposing the existing material,” says Nai. “It’s high time we understand that we have no option but to stop this mad consumption.”
