I have been meaning to share for a more than a week now the latest update from Rolando Politi, New York legend and founder of the trash worship movement. Rolando has long supported an all-woman waste picker’s collective in India and shares, along with these lovely photos, the news that you, too, may support their work by purchasing a flower made from salvaged materials.
Women making flowers
From Rolando:
The co-op in seemapuri is known as “kabad se jugad” (waste improvs) . Right now initial start up funds have all been spent for tools, supplies and rent. KSJ has decided to continue on the risky road of being all independent and self sustaining by the export sales of their unique flowers and mobiles! The price for one flower is $30 (includes export shipping) but if you order multiples, the cost is only $25 each. To order please send mail to recycleandpray@gmail.com. Specify the quantities and your shipping instructions.
Bindi bulbs
You need not pay until you receive the parcel in good order! They make a great surprise gift for your loved ones. We ship anywhere in the world and a card from sender can be included! The number of women involved is directly proportional to the number of orders received and just one order for three flowers is enough for one women salary for one month!
Since Iran has been thoroughly eliminated from the competition, and the U.S. has safely passed to the next round, I have through the weekend to watch some good soccer without worrying about the fate of my nations. And that means more time to wonder what happens to all the World Cup trash. This piece on Brazilian catadores sorting tourist trash for recyclable materials warmed by heart.
Even more fascinating, however, is the Pimp My Carroça project, which I discovered via this fabulous CityLab article about street artists making trash cans look like backpacks worn by squat men. From what I can gather, the name translates roughly as “pimp my trash cart” and involves raising the visibility of Brazil’s trash pickers and the challenges they face using creative art projects.
Both the first article and the art collective note that Brazil boasts one of the world’s highest rates of can recycling, thanks in large part to the catadores.
To tell the story of this community, French filmmaker Rémi Pinaud (in collaboration with Pimp My Carroça) hopes to complete his project O Cafofo, or The Castle, a fictional film about a trash picker and his two daughters whose home in a high rise housing project in São Paulo comes under threat when the city starts “cleaning up” to host the World Cup.
The Volta has a fabulous trash issue up, which I suspect you will want to read in full. First of all, there are separate sections and each have names, including a section entitled Landfill.
Some highlights:
For those of you feeling a little academic in 2014, check out this thought-provoking essay by Ted Mathys on how we depict and describe garbage and waste pickers and why it matters.
Dana Maya has a prosy poem called Trash Talk that’s worth reading.
There’s a feature on artist Alice Notley, who makes fans from trash, a photo slide show of Dead Horse Bay and all kinds of other good stuff.
This past Friday, the day job took me to the Bronx for an immigration-themed event hosted by the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Before the film screening and panel presentation, a rep from the museum got up to welcome the crowd and invite us to visit the exhibitions (free), attend their annual holiday party (free) and enjoy the food they served there (also, free). In sum, “Everything we do is free!” she said.
Now that’s my kind of museum.
Unfortunately, I had to rush downtown that evening and did not get a chance to check out the art. Today, in an absent-minded internet search for “trash art,” I came across a review of Tony Feher‘s work on display at the very same museum and kicked myself.
Here’s a description of his work via the Bronx Museum website:
Tony Feher came to prominence in the 1990s, inspired by the generation of minimalists that preceded him. Using materials in new ways, Feher turned his attention to the sculptural qualities of the everyday. Taking advantage of the generally overlooked and discarded, he highlights their formal qualities while simultaneously imbuing them with personal meaning. His careful consideration transforms and re-contextualizes these items into unique works of art.
I hope to check out the current exhibit before it closes on February 16th. Who wants to go the Bronx?
Artist Jennifer Maravillas created a cartograph of Brooklyn representing each block with a piece of trash collected on that block. This project — http://71squaremiles.com/ — combines so, so many of my favorite things into a massive, tidy, beautiful collage. Check out the work in progress here. Prints of past, equally political and whimsical for sale here.
via 71squaremiles.com
Thanks to Oriana of Brooklyn Spaces for pointing it out to me.
Zady, the company I told you about in this nepotistic post, is now live. Among the stories behind the brands featured on the site you will find an everydaytrash.com essay on my incredible grandmother who hated waste and who would be so proud of my sister and her friend Maxine for the business they launched today.
My mother recently moved to Westchester County, New York, and in no time at all has discovered all the best stuff to do, see and eat. We had an amazing day yesterday visiting some secret Persian Gardens and had a lovely dinner on the waterfront at a new place in Yonkers (thank you, Groupon). In between, we stopped by the Hudson River Museum to check out the wonderful and whimsicalFederico Uribe: Fantasy River exhibition. As the dude at the front desk put it “What’s great about this guy is that he’s not just creative, he’s innovative.”
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Uribe has transformed several rooms into a fantastical jungle habitat full of amazing creatures: huge birds constructed from tropical colored sneakers, a crane made of old crutches, a lamb comprised of ping pong balls screwed together, a doe made of bullets, trees made of books or rakes or corks. What makes the scenery so playful and dynamic are the dimensions. The artist has painted scenes on the walls then allowed them to pop out into sculpture: a 2D head attached to 3D hindquarters. Sourced from junkyards, donations and scavenging, the show takes recycling to new heights.
Go see it if you can. If not, here’s a video of the artist.
So I was delighted to be reminded of the project by a recent unconsumption post. The project’s Flickr page hosts a number of wonderful images including an adorable folder called The Tonnographers comprised of photos of the men taking photos with dumpsters; as well as the eery, arty pinhole images they captured.
Photo by by Michael Pfohlmann, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann via Flickr
I just love the photo captions noting the type of camera as a “1.100 litre garbage container.”
Discard Studies, one of my favorite garbage resources, shared this link today to a screening next week of the documentary Trash Dance. I just RSVPed. Here’s the trailer, via the film’s official website.
A choreographer finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks, and against the odds, rallies reluctant city trash collectors to perform an extraordinary dance spectacle. On an abandoned airport runway, two dozen sanitation workers—and their trucks—inspire an audience of thousands.
Artist Gabriel Orozco has what looks like an incredible sculpture and photo installation on view now at the Guggenheim in New York. Sandstars comprises natural detritus found in a wildlife reserve in Mexico while Astroturf Constellation comprises trash found near a playing field in New York City. Here’s a whimsical video on the show.
Landfill Harmonic is a documentary filmed in Paraguay about an orchestra whose musicians—young residents of a slum built on top of a landfill—play instruments made from trash. Here’s the trailer, which opens with a beautiful quote from the orchestra director: “The world sends us garbage. We send back music.” Gives me chills. I can’t wait for this film to be released.
Like the project on Facebook, here. Thanks for the tip, Brigitte. I am sure we’ll be posting more on this project as the film is released.
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.
everydaytrash 