Laying Waste to History: Recyclia and Urban Art Traditions in Mozambique

The present article examines the material and cultural foundations of art made with recycled materials in Mozambique, assessing the continuities (and discontinuities) it exhibits with urban art elsewhere. It connects the longstanding practice of recycling street waste into artwork to economic hardship, colonial history, the environmental crisis, and the increasing influence of hip hop and global urban cultural trends. While the scholarly discourse surrounding urban art has tended to focus on the street as an exhibition space and the use of materials such as spray paints that remain unaffordable for many in Africa, this study argues that despite their prevailing recourse to indoor exhibition, many of Mozambique's street 'recyclists' harbour similar aims, practices, and concerns to urban artists elsewhere. Considering artwork by a wide range of artists and of varying technologies, media, and overall complexity, the article thus seeks to connect existing scholarship on the use of recyclia in African arts to the much-theorised practices of street art, graffiti and style writing.