Remember Willis Elkins, the artist who collects cigarette lighters from the shores of New York City? His latest found art adventure involves not just collecting found objects, but restoring them.
The Haksiva
For the Jamaica Bay Pen Project, Elkins gives new life to pens that wash up on the shores of Jamaica Bay in Queens by cleaning them up and replacing the ink cartridges. Track the project here.
Never too late for a trash-themed Valentine. LOVE this tour of the shiny eggs via New York Shitty (blog name extra apt on a post like this).
Reminds me of an afternoon I spent in the area, marveling at the digester eggs and melancholy shoreline.
It’s been an unseasonably warm fall in New York, which was perfect last Saturday for a tour of Newtown Creek—the industrial waterway that serves as part of the border between Brooklyn and Queens—with photographer (and Brooklyn native) Anthony Hamboussi who recently published a gorgeous book of photos also called Newtown Creek.
Newtown Creek the book
Tony was nice enough to revisit a lot of the vantage spots he frequented to create the book. We spent around five hours exploring different views of the creek and comparing the sites as they are now to some of the images preserved in his book. It was especially cool to see the huge shiny silver wastewater treatment plant “digester eggs” up close and in person and then flip backwards through the book to recall various points of their construction. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I encourage you to visit the space between Brooklyn and Queens to see these massive metal eggs that separate sewage from water.
For me, a highlight was getting to see a barge up close. They’re huge!
Barge!
We also stopped to peep local graffiti art, like this metal welded piece by the legendary “Revs.” I love how this piece is structured so that the sun itself becomes the tag.
Fuckin Revs
In addition to the predictably industrial bits, we saw some naturally beautiful hidden bits of beach.
Pretty beach
And stumbled upon art in unexpected places.
Sculptures
All in all, it was a great day. I lost count of how many times we crossed from Brooklyn to Queens or Queens to Brooklyn. It was a lovely interborough adventure. I recommend checking it out for yourself. And whether or not you make the trek in person, I recommend checking out Newtown Creek the book. My five hour tour pales in comparison to the five years Tony spent photographing these in-between and unused spaces. His next project is a study of “La petite ceinture,” the abandoned railway tracks that encircle Paris like “a little belt.” Now THERE’s a tour I’d like to take!
Thanks again, Tony!
Collecting trash is a dangerous job. You don’t have to travel to developing countries for examples of why this is true. A Mack truck ran into and killed a sanitation worker this week as he was standing behind his truck in Queens, New York. If you read the comments in this City Room post, you’ll see locals complain that even though this street may have been closed to giant truck traffic, Mack trucks cut through it for convenience. I don’t know yet if that’s true—if the truck that killed this sanitation worker had made an illegal turn or a legal one—either way Frank Justich‘s death was tragic.
Ah Queens, the most diverse neighborhood on the planet. As if you needed another reason to visit, local artist N’Cognita has provided one for you: Trash-formaitons. Now through January in the curatorial space of Sabay Thai Restaurant in Elmhurst you can visit a very special trash art exhibition. Check out her website for more info. And while you’re there, click around for images of related expos past, including N’Cognita’s trashtastic Endless Junkmail Scroll.
N'Cognita's Endless Junkmail Scroll
Don’t forget to come see us in Queens tomorrow from 1-3pm at the Sculpture center.
…will exist in Long Island City, Queens, New York until August 3rd. More to come.
Thanks for the tip, Dacia!
everydaytrash 