Ivorian artist turns discarded flip-flops from beach into masterpieces

ABIDJAN: As Ivorian artist Aristide Kouame combs the beach with a big trash bag to gather discarded flip-flops and other footwear, he is aware that other beachgoers probably take him for a desperate street trader or possibly a madman.

Little do they know that Kouame, 26, transforms the flotsam into artworks valued at up to $1,000 by cutting the rubber and plastic soles into pieces that he assembles into large collages. "This is the rubbish people have thrown into the sea and the sea brings it back to us because it doesn't want it," he said on a beach in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial capital.