Heath Nash puts plastic bottles through their paces in Cape Town. Nash uses local labour and traditional craftsmanship to create beautiful lamps out of recycled plastic bottles and caps. The wirework involved in the lamp making process is also a local skill that is used in his studio, where all the bottles are carefully sorted, washed and dried. The white plastic is easier to come by than the coloured, so when Nash gets enough of ‘other people’s rubbish’ in full colour, the effect is spectacular. The photography, by David Southwood, serves to highlight the journey from nature to industrialization, with Nash’s work standing out against the juxtaposition, not just as a symbol, but as a concrete way to re-use and respect. Heath Nash will be showing in London this September at a couple of different venues, The New World show for the British Council and Trash/Luxe at Liberty.



Bottleball (The Glen - on the slopes of Table Mountain)


Your work as a designer has stemmed from local needs and the desire to inspire recycling and you have said that you’d like to keep your manufacturing local as well. But as a young South African designer, do you feel the pull towards other design hotspots around the world where you might have access to a larger audience, wider resources and a bigger breakout?
I'd love to get more experience and have easier access to more contemporary and high tech processes and techniques. I'd also really love to do my masters in design at the RCA....some day (I studied fine art, not design).

Another reason to want to be 'closer to the action' than down South, is to have easier access to manufacturers and producers. There's not so much opportunity for that kind of work relationship being built here in South Africa.

There is a lot of charm in the 3rd world's way of making and doing things though. It's got a whole other set of credentials, which I like a great deal. It would be cool to combine the two things soon though - to make things in a 2nd world way...??

Bottlebase/Bucketshade Lamp (disused quarry, Table Mountain).

The world is already full of 'stuff' – as a designer, why do you choose to create more?
That's a large part of why I like the re-use angle I'm currently working with - the fact that I get to use up some of the 'stuff' that we have so much of, and hopefully take away from the waste instead of adding more crap to the pile. I also like the idea of creating 'luxury' items that aren't part of the general consumer throw-away culture we all live in now... by making things that have a sense of longevity and value.



Fullcolour Bottleballs (recycling depot in Airport Industria).

Curlicues (recycling depot)