everydaytrash

The entire East Coast of the United States seems to have shut down—public transport, schools, Broadway theaters, banks, the stock exchange—but trash collection is on for Monday in New York City. Pretty darn impressive. Feels like today is a good day to revisit Chasing Sanitation, an artistic tribute to New York’s Strongest in the form of portraits and collected stories.

Touch Sanitation

And, while we’re at it, it’s a good day to revisit the work of Mierle Landerman Ukeles, the Department of Sanitation’s artist in residence. Among other landmark trash-related installations, Ukeles is known for a performance piece she put on in 1984 called Touch Sanitation. Over 11 months,  she shook the hand of every sanitation worker in the city and said “Thank you for keeping New York City alive.” Here’s a classic Talk of the Town on her work, via Feldman Gallery.

Stay safe, trashies.

Tags: Artist in Residence, Chasing Sanitation, DSNY, Hurricane Sandy, Mierle Landerman Ukeles, new york city, Touch Sanitation

This entry was posted on Monday, October 29, 2012 at 7:14 am and is filed under Artistic Trash. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.