One man’s rubbish another’s treasure

THEY call it “Tin Can” or simply unique form of art that uses the principle of mosaic art, but instead of bits of stone or glass, these works of art are made from thousands of square pieces of cooldrink tin cans.

With no for mal art training, artist, Izak Fourie, 36, decided some four years ago that he’d like to experiment with creative ways of expressing himself and incorporating used materials.

And so his exploration into creating art using tin cans began and evolved into what it is today.

Fourie grew up in Gauteng and attended Hartbeespoor t High School, before moving to Bloemfontein. He is employed as a sales executive for a car dealership in the city and does his “Tin-Can” Art in his spare time.

He’s been collecting used tin cans from restaurants in Bloemfontein since 2013.

“Once I’ve collected about 500 tins – this is the number of tins I use on average per art work – I then cut each tin up into small blocks, using a regular pair of scissors, and sort the pieces according to a colour palette to apply to the grid technique I use.

“I draw a grid on a board and then individually mark each little square and place it in the right order,” explains Fourie.

Each artwork takes about two months to complete and he applies about 50 000 square pieces of tin to complete each work. The completed artwork weighs no more than 5kg.

He sold his first piece for R25 000 in a solo exhibition in Bloemfontein. Now Fourie is invited by the Department of Trade and Industry to exhibit his art in London next month.