Each animal is a distinctive rainbow of shades. At a glance, the colourful menagerie of beasts appears to be made of play dough or plastic, but on closer inspection their hides are revealed to be a very familiar rubbery texture.
Artist Davis Ndungu’s creations feel a lot like a flip-flop – because that’s what they’re made of: discarded sandals. He recycles around 7 000 flip-flops in a year to create about 2 000 sculptures.
Davis (42) has been recycling old beach sandals and turning them in to eye-catching sculptures ranging from giraffes to warthogs, penguins and rhinos for the past 10 years. He is now also experimenting with making furniture from them, for sale on his website and at the bustling The Watershed at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.
