Kenya

"What is of no use today will be useful tomorrow." —Kenyan proverb

Embodying innovation and resourcefulness in art and design, artists from Kitengela Glass create habitable dwellings, sculptures, furniture, and other decorative and useful objects from discarded materials found around their community located just outside of Nairobi National Park.

Photos by Preston Scott, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution

Nani Croze first established Kitengela in the early 1980s as a stained-glass studio, but over the years it has evolved and expanded with many Kenyan artists now working with recycled glass bottles, scrap metal, broken pottery, wastepaper, and more. Even the smallest shards of supposed trash are reborn at Kitengela as sun-catchers, mosaics, and jewelry—symbols of a place where people, nature and art express renewed life found in each other every day.

As part of the 2014 Folklife Festival, Kitengela artists constructed a freeform structure on the National Mall using recycled bottles, discarded plates and other household objects collected by Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage staff.

FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS

Brothers Patrick and Isaac Kibe are self-taught muralists who specialize in turning waste materials into masterpieces. Using recycled bottles, tin, bottle caps, broken tiles, glasses, and other resources, they produce whimsical and fantastic homes and other structures.

On the tenth and last day of the Festival, Isaac Maina Kibe cleans around embedded bottle caps and broken tile on the hut’s roof, which now includes a whimsical head.
Photo by Heather Caverhill, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Brothers Isaac Maina Kibe (inside) and Patrick Thuita Kibe use recycled materials to produce unusual and fantastic homes and structures. By the second day of the Festival, a recycled hut is already taking shape using rebar and chicken wire.
Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
On the Festival’s fourth day, Isaac Maina Kibe works with a young Festival visitor to place glass bottles on the structure, leaving the tops and bottoms exposed to allow light to shine through.
Photo by Brian Barger, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Patrick Thuita Kibe works on the hut on day six of the Festival.
Photo by Francisco Guerra, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Brothers Patrick and Isaac Maina Kibe work on final touches to the recycled hut on day eight of the Festival.
Photo by Josh Weilepp, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
Isaac Maina Kibe works on the roof of the hut he and his brother constructed out of recycled materials. On the ninth day of the Festival, the structure is nearly complete.
Photo by Pruitt Allen, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution
A self-taught muralist specializing in turning waste materials into masterpieces, Patrick Thuita Kibe works on whimsical toys out of recycled materials.
Photo by Heather Caverhill, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution