French artist Arman traveled between France and the US making incredible trash art for several decades before his death in 2005. A recurring theme in his work was the poubelle, or trash can.
Household trash in a glass box, 1959
Here’s a photo timeline of Arman’s poubelles, a must-click for anyone interested in trash art. A biography of the artist can be found here (check out the photo of his piece “Long Term Parking”) and a more general timeline of his life and work here. Thanks Rachel and Tamar for sharing these links. Super!
More fun poubelle-themed links here, here and here.
In Halmstad, Sweden’s 19th city (56 000 pax), trashy art has been taken to where trash harbours. Local artist Kamil Lucaszewicz has decorated a city recycling station, much to the joy of Lucaszewicz’s fellow citizens. Local TV station TV4 Halland has the story (there’ll be an ad clip first)!
Rob Walker has constructed a “monster post” on “The idea of the cassette” over at MURKETING. Go. Click through. Get lost. It’s rich and entertaining and full of creative upcycling and recycling project ideas.
Semirelated: Awesome Tapes from Africa is a site worth following (the name says it all). I discovered it via my friend Erica. Thanks, Erica!
Not that related but also awesome: There is a kid on YouTube who calls himself CassetteMaster. He is obsessed with collecting vintage tape recorders and making videos about them. He has a bit of a cult following. I am trying hard not to get sucked in, but these videos kind of lull you into addiction. Especially ones involving other people interacting with the awkward CassetteMaster. Like all things to do with audio and the absurd, this link came to me via Flex Unger.
The Etsy Trashion blog has a handy pair of posts up about eco-friendly business cards up. The first covers how to make them yourself, the second how to get them printed.
DIY businesss cards
Several years into garblogging, I still don’t use a card. It’s a waste issue that’s had me conflicted for a while. Maybe this year I’ll get it together and make a snappy set of DIYs.
Portia Munson makes plastic pretty by piling it up and placing it in musuems. Check out her stuff at Beautiful/Decay. Hers and other trashtastic work will go on display at the Chelsea gallery P.P.O.W. from March 20th in a show called Debris. More to come when the show opens.
Saw Five Easy Pieces at Film Forum last night.
Favorite part pasted below (and ripped from here).
It’s the brilliant lead-in to the famous Diner scene.
EXT. BOBBY'S CAR - NORTHERN HIGHWAY - DAY
(COUNTRY & WESTERN INSTRUMENTAL OVER:)
ON THE CAR
moving through the Redwood country above San
Francisco.
INT. BOBBY'S CAR - HIGHWAY - DAY
ON BOBBY
bored, as he drives. Beside him, Rayette primps in
the sunvisor mirror.
ON THE BACK SEAT
Terry lights a cigarette while Palm, staring
morosely out the window, goes into a soliloquy:
PALM
I had to leave this place. I got
depressed, seeing all the crap. And
the thing is, they're making more
crap, you know? They've got so many
stores and stuff and junk full of
crap, I can't believe it.
BOBBY
Who?
PALM
Who? People, that's who! Pretty
soon there won't be room for
anyone.
They're selling more crap that
people go and buy than you can
imagine. Oofh! Crap! I believe
everybody should have a big hole
where they throw in all this stuff
and burn it.
Rayette leans around to her.
RAYETTE
There'd never be a hole big enough.
Now took at me, for instance, when
I was just one person, before
Bobby, I had so much garbage
collectin' onto me every day, I was
thinkin' about gettin a dispose
all...
PALM
A dispose-all, what's that but more
crap? I've never seen such crap.
Oofh, I don't know how people get
up in the morning.
TERRY
Mass production is what does it.
PALM
What do you mean "mass"... I have
to come out and tell you, you're
not that clean, either.
TERRY
Wait a minute. I'm not that neat,
maybe, but I am clean.
PALM
Well, you're not that bad, but some
people... I mean, people's homes,
just filth. I've been in people's
homes...
TERRY
In my personal observation, I think
that more people are neat than are
clean...
PALM
In my personal thing, I don't see
that. I'm seeing more filth. A lot
of filth. What they need to do
every day, no, once in a while, is
a cockroach thing, where they spray
the homes. And uh...
can you imagine, if their doors
were painted a pretty color, and
they had a pot outside, with...
TERRY
Yeah, it could be adorable...
PALM
And they picked up! I mean, it
wouldn't be filthy, with Coke
bottles and whiskey, and those
signs everywhere...
She gestures angrily out the window at the roadside
billboards.
PALM (CONT'D)
... they oughta be erased! All
those signs, selling crap, and more
crap, and, I don't know, it's
disgusting, I don't even want to
talk about it!
Bobby starts to say something:
BOBBY
Well...
PALM
It's just filthy. People are dirty.
I think that's the biggest thing
that's wrong with people. I think
they wouldn't be as violent if they
were clean, because then they
wouldn't have anybody to pick on...
Oofh... Dirt...
RAYETTE
Well...
PALM
Not dirt. See, dirt isn't bad. It's
filth. Filth is bad. That's what
starts maggots and riots...
She suddenly leans over to the front seat, pointing
to a semi ahead.
PALM (CONT'D)
Hey, follow that truck. They know
the best places to stop.
RAYETTE
That's an old maid's tale.
PALM
Bullshit! Truck drivers know the
best eating places on the road.
Rayette turns around, asserting:
RAYETTE
Salesmen and cops are the ones. If
you'd ever waitressed, honey, you'd
know.
PALM
Don't call me "honey," mack.
RAYETTE
Don't call me "mack," honey.
PALM
I wouldn't be a waitress. They're
nasty and full of crap.
RAYETTE
You better hold onto your tongue!
PALM
(giving her the finger)
Hold onto this.
Terry laughs.
RAYETTE
Just one minute, you! Don't you
ever talk to me like that!
BOBBY
Shut up! All of you!
Last weekend while in Uganda for work, I had the amazing opportunity to visit the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in Nakitoma. We drove out to where the rhinos graze and peeked in on a few of them sleeping.
Taleo, the dominant male
The guide and sanctuary brochure were full of all kinds of interesting rhino factoids. For example, the term “White” rhino derives not from the color of the animals but from the dutch word for wide (and they are). They started the sanctuary with four rhinos from Kenya then got two more donated from the US. The offspring are the first rhinos born in Uganda in at least 28 years. Pretty cool. And want to hear something cute? Because the first baby was born to a Kenyan dad and American mom, they named him Obama.What, you might ask, does any of this have to do with garbage? Well, for one thing, the sanctuary itself is an ecotourism destination, low impact, solar powered, etc. More on Northern Uganda and low waste traveling to come (in the meantime, check out Uganda trash photos on the everydaytrash.com Facebook page).
For another thing, my friend Flex Unger just sent me this amazing link to a roundup of used tire sculptures from around the world.
Tire rhino by artist Ji Yong Ho
My favorite, of course, is this rhino by Korean artist Ji Yong Ho. According to this Theme Magazine article:
To Ji, rubber symbolizes mutation. “The product is from nature,” from the white sap of latex trees. “But here it’s changed. The color is black. The look is scary.” He tried experimenting with clay and bronze, but the sculptures looked too much like robots. “Rubber is very flexible, like skin, like muscles,” he explains. It gives him more freedom in capturing the animals’ expressivity—the horse’s wistful glance or the way the hyena cocks its hind leg, ready to spring into an attack.
Artful upcycling.
UPDATE: Rhinos, rhinos everywhere. As soon as I posted on the White rhinos in Uganda, I read this sweet story about Sumatran rhonos in Indonesia. Also, for those who may not know or remember, the official everydaytrash.com mascot is a rhino made of flip flops named P.C.
unconsumption finds the neatest stuff. Anyone who follows this blog should also follow that one. Case in point, this recycled plastic chandelier by artist Katharine Harvey.
Katharine Harvey's recycled plastic chandelier
Reminds me of this chandelier, also brought to our attention by unconsumption.
UnionDocs is showing Garbage Warrior—the documentary about radical sustainable architect, Michael Reynolds—on Friday, January 29th, @ 7:30 pm. Director Oliver Hodge will be on hand for a Q&A. And at least 50% of the everydaytrash.com team plans to attend.
Since we first blogged about this film in 2007 and 2008, it has traveled the festival circuit racking up awards. Check it out if you’re in the area and keep an eye out if you’re elsewhere.
Little Shiva over at The Visible Trash Society features Claudia Borgna today, an artist whose primary medium is your every day plastic bag. I urge you to take some time to peruse Borgna’s website because her manipulation of these items is extraordinary.Be sure to check out images of her nature installations—billowing bags tied to resemble flowers, pods and other-worldly orbs—and dreamy performance pieces like the one pictured here.
I find plastic bags interesting because of their remarkable contradictory qualities. Plastic bags are in fact both worthless and useful, disposable and recyclable, flimsy and strong, ephemeral and eternal, but above all they are universal.
Ruby Re-Usable has a great post up today on decorated dumpsters and a reminder that later this year we will be celebrating Decorative Dumpster Day for the second consecutive year. Woot.
everydaytrash 