04:22Fabric of society: Nigerian visionary turns textile trash into important artworks
Visual artist Uzoma Samuel Anyanwu is making a name for himself turning worn-out fabrics into huge masterpieces, as seen in Magboro on Monday.
"The cut-outs from tailors that should end up in dump site, we pick them up to repurpose, to recycle, then to reuse them for making an artwork," he explained. "So they are already an artwork on their own, pieces of artwork, pieces of history, pieces of culture from people."
Footage shows Anyanwu in his workshop, as the fabrics are sorted, chosen and cut to size before being used for his portraits, with the unique style of clothing making matching fabrics to his collages tricky.
"You have to also look at those that are especially at the African fabrics, some of them are prints with multiple colours, multiple designs, you can be having yellow, red, blue, black in one fabric" he added.
Anyanwu quit his full-time work as a photographer to become a textile artist in 2012. While the works are getting a lot of attention, for this artist, it’s also about creating a record of local history and culture.
04:22Visual artist Uzoma Samuel Anyanwu is making a name for himself turning worn-out fabrics into huge masterpieces, as seen in Magboro on Monday.
"The cut-outs from tailors that should end up in dump site, we pick them up to repurpose, to recycle, then to reuse them for making an artwork," he explained. "So they are already an artwork on their own, pieces of artwork, pieces of history, pieces of culture from people."
Footage shows Anyanwu in his workshop, as the fabrics are sorted, chosen and cut to size before being used for his portraits, with the unique style of clothing making matching fabrics to his collages tricky.
"You have to also look at those that are especially at the African fabrics, some of them are prints with multiple colours, multiple designs, you can be having yellow, red, blue, black in one fabric" he added.
Anyanwu quit his full-time work as a photographer to become a textile artist in 2012. While the works are getting a lot of attention, for this artist, it’s also about creating a record of local history and culture.