Mbongeni Buthelezi  

June 10, 2024

Articles

Mbongeni Buthelezi at work with a heat gun.

The war on waste has resulted in a monumental artwork, titled Jozi My Jozi, by Mbongeni Buthelezi, a Joburg-based artist who has spent the past 30 years honing his extraordinary medium – plastic. He is the only artist to work in this way by using a heat gun on discarded plastic to create intensely layered images that resemble oil paintings from a distance. 

This new work, currently installed at Standard Bank Rosebank, is overwhelming in its proportions and intensity of colour. It’s a full picture of the city, conveying many aspects that give our streets life. It invites you to look further, and when examined closely, you are transported into the city through different fragments of what gives the place life. The work was unveiled at the bank’s Rosebank headquarters on April 16 and is at present displayed in the atrium where it is open for viewing by the public.



X