Frederick Phiri is the junk⁃art king of Zambia: at just 22, he started to earn an international reputation for being able to make complex and elegant sculptures from scrap metal(金属废料) found in his community.
Phiri's father died when he was starting primary school. Then his mother abandoned him and he had to stay with his grandfather. His grandfather paid for his schooling through primary school but when he entered secondary school, he had to get various jobs to pay for his fees. Yet even in school, he was always drawing and making things in class.
After graduating, he did what he could to support himself by making animal sculptures from wires and sold them to tourists. His work was so popular that it caught the eye of Karen Beattie, director of Project Luangwa, a nonprofit dedicated to education and economic development in central Africa.
"I introduced him to a local welder(焊工),"Beattie told Newsweek.
In 2017, Phiri worked with welder Moses Mbewe during the rainy season, helping to make a complex set of doors for Project Luangwa. The piece sparked an idea in Beattie's mind:" I handed him a bunch of scrap metal and said, 'Make something with this.' And he did. It was wonderful."
Today, Phiri continues his art, using pieces of junk people bring him — keys, broken bike chains, old metal plugs and whatever scrap metal is lying around. He then turns the junk into abstract animals — elephants, cranes, giraffes, chameleons — and sells them at Project Luangwa headquarters. The community has recognized his talents.
"My dream is to earn enough to study art at the Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka and be able to make a living from it," Phiri said". And then to make very large sculptures."