Sustainability in Art: How Asisebenze Artists Are Turning Everyday Materials Into Meaning
Published 25 November 2025 in Blog
by Nomonde Kananda
At Asisebenze Art Atelier, sustainability isn’t a buzzword, it’s something you can feel the moment you step into the studios. There are pieces of fabric waiting to be reborn, old clothes pinned to canvases, and artworks that carry stories of nature, culture, and memory.
What’s beautiful about the artists here is that none of them treat sustainability like a rulebook. Instead, it becomes an instinct, a way of living, creating, remembering, and imagining a better future. Through their hands, waste becomes possibility, and the act of making becomes an act of care.
Here’s how three Asisebenze artists; Sindi Serape, Impumelelo Samantha Maseko, and Sandile Ndabukwelayo, are redefining what sustainable art can look like.
Sindi Serape: Finding Beauty in What Others Throw Away
For Sindi, sustainability started with something many artists know all too well: limited resources. Fabric is expensive. Materials run out. And when you’re creating on a tight budget, you learn to make magic with what’s already around you.
But Sindi didn’t just use scraps, he transformed them.
He speaks about reimagining textiles with such confidence and clarity. In his studio, nothing goes to waste. Fabric becomes offcuts, offcuts become a new stitched-together textile, and the leftover tiniest bits get shredded into microfiber for cushions and homeware.
It’s a beautiful cycle. Almost like the material itself is on a journey.
But Sindi is also honest: it’s time-consuming. Creating something new from scraps takes patience, attention, and the kind of love that doesn’t always fit into a neat schedule. Yet he keeps doing it because the process matters just as much as the final product.
His message is powerful and disarming in its simplicity:
And that reminder isn’t just for artists; it’s for all of us.
Impumelelo Maseko: When Sustainability Becomes a Form of Memory and Self-Love
If Sindi’s practice is about reconstructing materials, Impumelelo’s is about protecting them.
She calls herself a “hoarder of things,” not in the chaotic sense but more in the way someone holds onto memories, stories, and pieces of home. Old clothing, lace curtains, artificial plants, things from her mother’s wardrobe… nothing is thrown away. Everything has potential.
Her journey into using old clothing began with fashion, a dream she never got to study formally but one she never let go of. Working with fabric allows her to play with design, texture, and identity.
But there’s also a deeper motivation.
She often wonders where unwanted clothes actually go. Who do they harm? What part of the earth becomes their graveyard?
So instead of discarding things, she turns them into art that honours women, their beauty, their struggles, their resilience, and the impossible standards society sets on them. Her piece What You Say, You Become layers old materials to express manifestation and self-belief.
The message is clear:
And when she speaks about women, their power, their pain, their importance, sustainability becomes more than an environmental idea. It becomes emotional, spiritual, and ancestral.
Sandile Ndabukwelayo: Creating Art That Lasts Longer Than We Do 
Sandile approaches sustainability from another angle: preservation.
For him, sustainable art is art that can be passed down, something that maintains its condition and beauty long after the buyer is gone. He thinks about the next generation and the next, and the next. His focus is on longevity, on making sure his work can survive time, humidity, movement, and the life of a family.
He’s careful with his materials. He chooses supplies that are environmentally friendly and durable, because protecting the earth and protecting the artwork go hand in hand.
He’s honest about the challenges, too. In the early stages of his practice, he experimented with materials that cracked, peeled, or degenerated. Those failures taught him to be more intentional.
He jokes that he’s “thankful for the cracks,” because they saved him from creating work, he wouldn’t be proud to see out in the world.
The core of his practice is cultural preservation, honouring heritage, nature, and the things we tend to overlook. Some of his works showcase greenery and organic textures, reminding us that preservation is part of everyday life.
The grass is greener when you water it. What you preserve stays.
What These Artists Teach Us About Sustainability
Together, Sindi, Impumelelo, and Sandile paint a bigger picture, one that stretches beyond their studios and deep into the heart of what sustainability truly means.
Using what you have, even when it feels small.
Transforming old things into new ones
Remembering where things come from and where they go
Choosing materials that honour the earth
Preserving culture, stories, and community
Creating with intention
Sustainability isn’t just an environmental practice — it’s emotional, cultural, and deeply human. It’s about being resourceful, responsible, and imaginative. It’s about understanding that everything we touch has a life before us and a life after us.
Care for culture
Care for the planet
Care for each other
And through their work, these artists remind us that sustainability begins not with perfection, but with paying attention.
A Gentle Invitation to Our Asisebenze Community
As you explore the work of these artists or walk through our studio halls, we invite you to pause and look a little closer. What materials speak to you? What stories are hidden in the scraps we overlook? And how might you, in your own creative life or daily choices, turn something old into something with a new meaning? At Asisebenze, sustainability isn’t just an artistic practice; it’s a mindset. A reminder that each of us has the power to imagine differently, to create responsibly, and to honour the world we’re part of. We hope this inspires you to support sustainable artists, start conversations, reflect on your own habits, and stay connected to the evolving, ever-creative community growing within our walls.