Photo taken by Phillip on his phone. Thanks, Phillip!

The best description of this project (as well as lots of great photos and descriptions of the artist’s other work) can be found on her blog, Gwyneth’s Full Brew in the form of this conversation with a passerby as she was outside wiping finger, nose and palmprints off the windows:

A man came up to me carrying his takeout coffee (small brown cup, flat lid, wrapped in a napkin).

He asked rather belligerently, “What exactly is the point of this installation?”

I drew breath. He actually looked kind of angry.

“Well,” I said, “it is about the inventive potential of the human spirit. The artist has saved all her used paper coffee cups for years and she has drawn and painted on each one by hand. There must be almost 800 cups hanging in there. And each one is a different.”

“Oh!” He said, and stalked off, apparently satisfied.

Lighters

Elkins, who describes himself as being “very interested in all facets of consumer culture, product disposability and the waste infrastructure,” has a number of other interesting projects on his site LESS logs. Less stands for Locate Explore Synthetic Sites.

The lighter project in particular reminds me of Norwegian artist Jon Gunderson‘s contribution to the 2008 “Through the Looking Glass: From Found Object to Trash Art” show curated by Samir M’kadmi (and opened with a keynote by yours truly, still one of the coolest opportunities every brought on by everydaytrash). Gunderson presented a series of found briefcases each filled neatly with objects found on walks through Oslo. He had a case filled with pacifiers, one with cigarette lighters and another filled entirely with black shoe soles.

Oslo art show

Somehow organizing these everyday objects in cases and putting those cases on a row of podiums elevated their status from trash to art with social commentary. Elkins’ projects do the same. Check them out!

Semi-related post: Introspective trash.

Here’s the flyer description:

Everything Must Go follows the journeys of worn clothing as it is sold for reuse and recycling across the world. This exhibition brings invisible global waste economies into public view, explores the people involved and the impact these businesses have upon their lives, and questions our ability to control, contain and curtail waste.

The exhibition will feature a film, photos, workshops and a textile installation. Londoners can check out the event at the Bargehouse Friday 20–Sunday 22 January, 11–6pm. Free admission.

Tugboat hauling a recycling barge.

Check out the full photoset on Facebook and the artist’s site for details on the symbolism, process and realization of this project.

The MTA drawings consist of several symbols local to the Rockaways. The left side of one diptych shows two images of a Piping Plover – an endangered bird that has chosen a section of beach at the Rockaways, just a few blocks south of the 90th Street station as one of its few remaining nesting grounds. The nautical flags spell out the popular phrase “Be Good or Be Gone” which can be seen behind the doors of several pubs and restaurants in the neighborhood. I am using the phrase as a reminder for visitors to take care and appreciate the fragile environment of the area.

This is a wonderful reminder of all the magical places the NYC Subway system can take you. Thanks for the tip, Gillian! Field trip anyone?

Card Catalog

My friend Myra models our cards

The happy couple

Congratulations Jennie and Ben!

For a closer look at this ongoing series, check out this flickr album.

And if you haven’t yet, please immediately buy, rent or stream the documentary Waste Land. It chronicles another trash-themed Brazilian art project in which photographer Vik Muniz enlisted cartadores to help create massive portraits of themselves using recyclables picked from a gigantic dump, then sold prints to profit their workers’ collective.

While it was cool to see the pools up close, they were built tastefully into a deck off to the side and overall, as an evening event, the party fell a bit flat for me. Paris Metro gawking rules applied, but I didn’t see too much worth staring at. One or two bold ladies danced in bikinis. Hipsters played what my friend Oriana of Brooklyn Spaces called “a vicious game of chicken” in the water. An obligatory gourmet food truck sold fancy fast food. The limited bar list included PBR and soju cocktails. House music pulsed, a lone breaker busted some moves. Maybe we got there too early. I just never forgot I was standing in a mostly empty parking lot in Queens. I think I would have been more excited if the pools were in the center of the space and distributed in a way that forced me to walk around them.

Anyway, in this final weeks of summer, I definitely see the appeal of just such a chic destination down the street from PS1. From what I understand the organizers plan to host semi regular daytime events until Labor Day. Local trashies, let me know if any of you go check out the joint for yourselves.

Here’s what Tony has to say for himself:

The first generation of conceptual artists like Huebler attempted to de-materialize the art object by displacing it into language. One of the most important consequences of this form of production was the disruption of the process of exchange by which art becomes a commodity, and therefore the  process through which art constitutes cultural hegemony. However, for various reasons the displacement of objecthood could not be sustained, resulting in the reintegration of materiality and the transformation of conceptual art into ”post conceptual” art. This is where we are today. My intervention into Huebler’s seminal piece is a critique of his desire for pure objectivity (I argue that his displacement of the object is made possible through the sacrifice of subjectivity), and at the same time is a recuperation of his critical method. Through a gesture that is basically a form of recycling, my version becomes a critique of all forms of garbage–both material and conceptual art and as well as non art.

Check out other example’s of Tony’s work here and here.