Junk Rafts

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Imagine seeing a raft built of essentially junk floating along the nearby river, blocking and distributing the beautiful landscape that lies around you. We know that The Garbage Barge from New York was nothing but an eye soar and constant reminder of the issue of waste in the world. So would you want to see junk floating by? What if someone makes it art?

Brooklyn based street artist Swoon, has come up with a concept about sustainability by creating just that very idea, creating a raft made of junk. Swoon has cast off three separate expeditions where her constructed rafts have travelled along coasts picking up trinkets of life along the way. This sustainability circus showcases these “swimming cites” as a visual of our mass consumption of waste while paralleling it with a process of recycling.

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Recycling Plastic For More Then Just The Environment

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In many of my posts I have talked about recycling your plastic material; mostly talking about recycling your water bottles. I have been focusing on artists lately and have found an artists named Aurora Robson who creates sculptures out of plastic.

By Aurora Robson

By Aurora Robson

Robson focuses on recycling so much that she actually welcomes people to send her “junk” material in the mail. She is essentially creating a recycling process of her own. She twists, cuts, reforms these pieces of plastic into abstract forms, lit by solar-powered LED lights to create these illuminated organic forms. Her works remind me of David Chihuly’s glass sculptures in its organic nature.

Here are some of her works:

This video is an interview with Aurora Robson describing her thoughts and practices of her art. Enjoy!

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Eco Art

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Carolina Fontoura

Carolina Fontoura

I love my bike and I hope with good care I can keep it for a very long time, but one thing that can not keep forever is the tires. Naturally, tires start to wear down with use.

Tires are very important to recycle. They can be used to make sandals, roads, soccer turf, etc. But one artist recycles this material into a beautiful are chandelier. Mexican artists Carolina Fontoura’s bike tires to create a exquisite light. These works not only showcase an artist who is recycling but her work is visually appealing. it looks good in a gallery and in your dinning room.

Carolina Fontoura had her first solo show called Connect, where she showcases these beautifully created lights. Connect showcases a series of chandeliers that were inspired by DIY projects, bike punk culture, and the victorian era. Her handmade pieces borderline the industrial and elegant look while asking the viewer to take a closer look at what the chandelier is made of. She is addressing the issue of environmentalism and sustainability. “She admits to having a strong connection with  urban bicycle culture and hopes to inspire audiences to question their ideas on what is beautiful and functional.”

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Art Show. Creativity. Exhibition. Message. …Sustainability

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We have seen many artists that have used there creative ability to turn a piece of art into a political message about environmentalism and sustainability. Now imagine an entire room that is filled with these beautiful messages. I wonder where I would begin if I had an exhibition to create.

I would need to find artists that focus on this topic, but who or whom. Would I want to focus on one point of sustainability or try and tackle a wide variety. How would I find or create work to go inside when I’m only a student. I could put out a call for artists or artworks in the area that would address the issue of sustainability or would I create a more informational exhibition or how about a mix of the both. In a sense the entire exhibition would be one message, one big fight to show the world about sustainability and how we can make simply adjustments to help keep this planet been.

and that’s where I need to start. The most important thing is finding out what my message will be. As my research has progressed I have found that this country like many others have an issue with waste and what to do with our waste whether be recycling or landfills.

All of the artists I have researched in some form of another have dealt with this very issue. And because this issue effects everyone in the world I believe that all can hear and where to start but on a university campus.

So how I’m I going to get people involved and what am I even going to show or illustrate. This is where my research of artists have helped. Steven Siegal and David Mach are two artists that I have talked about and used a similar way to portray a message of sustainability. One way I believe I could bring there ideas and my ideas together in a gallery is to collect as much recycled material on campus and showcase it the centre of the gallery. All of the collected recycled material would be “housed” in a net or some sort of walls that would draped down from the ceiling creating a “room” filled with all of the campuses recycled material. I believe this could visual showcase this issue of recycling and waste. It would show students the amount of material we go through daily that needs recycled. Now how would a “house” the material? I could use a net or some sort of clear material where you can see the amount of recycled products. I will need to do more research on this. I think something for me to keep in mind is using sustainable material for creating these walls.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

There is much more I need to think about, but this is a start.

If anyone has an ideas or suggestions about an art exhibition about sustainability please comment below.

Thank you,

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 

Hangers Can Be More Than Just Coat-hangers

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David Mach

                 David Mach

While searching for artists that have focus on the theme sustainability I found David Mach. He is a fine artist that uses coat-hangers to create his large and intrusive sculptures. Mach states on his website that he “believe that an artist must be an ideasmonger responding to all kinds of physical location, social and political environments, to materials, to processes, to timescales and budgets.” I believe that everyone in the world is responding to some sort or event is issue that surrounds us; it is very difficult for us, as humans to ignore the influences around us, its natural. We can see that this artist has responded to the issues that surround us, being sustainability by recycling materials to be used in a new form then it was initially intended. Mach likes to work with a variety of materials. He stated that “It’s no understatement to say I am a materials junkie – jumping from highly-painted realistic cast fibreglass pieces to sculpture with coathangers, to a thatched barn roof laced with fibre-optics to designs for camera obscuras (or at least the buildings to house them) and layouts for parks.” He will use any material to form something new; he will adapt to the world around him to create his masterpieces much like politicians, businessmen and doctors.

Here is some of his hanger series:

Here is a different approach he takes to using found material to create his works:

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Gugger Petter

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Everyone has read a newspaper at one point or another; whether you are reading the comics, the daily news or the sports you have picked up that paper and hopefully when finished recycled them.  Every week or everyday a new issue of a newspaper comes out and we are informed on the events of the world, but little do we think of the amount of waste these newspapers create. We must be conscious of this issue. I know that thanks to technology we are afforded the ability to get some newspapers in an application on our phone, ereader, or tablet.

Artists have addressed this issue by using newspapers to create their art pieces to act as a process of recycling the material. Petter is a fine artist that works internationally creating 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional works from newspapers. She likes using the limited palette of black and white, which has been her main choice through most of her works. Her initial intension for using newspapers was the materials natural presentation of our daily lives.  Petter has a “profound respect for this material,” she stated on her website that “I have never regarded it as ‘recycled’ or ‘trash.’”  This comment struck me, she doesn’t “regard it as recycled,” well then what does she regard it as? I believe her work speaks to this. The material of her work is never “waste” or something that should be recycled and no longer used. She is not giving a second life to this newspaper, she views it as never being dead. A newspaper is what it is, regardless of how its being used and when its being used. This is a very different perspective taken on waste and recycling that I have taken. Recycling something doesn’t mean the object is useless or waste or dead and there are many processes for recycling materials.

Here’s some examples of Gugger Petter:

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Repurposing

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Many people turn to the website “Pinterest” to find ways of decorating there homes, recipes, funny pictures, DIY projects, etc. One thing I have found useful is the ways you can save your money or reuse material is through repurposing. Repurposing has even become a trend in todays age, where people are creating new ways to reuse that old window or antique luggage.

Here are some ideas I have found to help show you that your “waste” or “junk” can actually be valuable.

Help give your products a second life. It can help save you money, give you a new trendy decorative edge and most importantly help save our planet.

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Waste Intervention

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“We are the Landscape” – Steven Siegal

Steven Siegal is an American fine artist that uses recycled material and pre-consumer products such as, newspapers, crushed soda cans, shredded rubber to create his public art installations in our landscape. He “reinvents the role of sculpture for an eco-conscious planet… that reflects the deposit-and-decay cycle that underlines the making of the land.”  Siegal has created these works all over the world in places like, Europe, Asia, and North America. His main objective is to create a conversation about the landscape and how our society is affecting it.

His sculptures act as interventions within our landscape, we have to stop and address the “elephant in the room” that is waste consumption.  There is a subtly to some of his works, specifically the ones that blend into the landscape, that I believe parallels the concealed issue of waste within out society. As scene in previous blogs and articles I have read, it is very difficult for us to see the mass consumption and issue that is waste and landfills because its impossible to physically see it all at once, but just because we cannot see it doesn’t mean its there.

In a way his work is acting as a solution by recycling material to create something new. His first objective is to show the world its waste but his underline message provides a solution of recycling or some sort of waste management. As I have scene while researching this topic, there are plenty of solutions to tackle this issue, and it seems to all point back to recycling and how we discard or reuse materials.

“Sited Works” Series

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To Recycle or Not Recycle?… That is The Real Question

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As I was cleaning the printmaking studio I work at last night, there was a water bottle that was left on a table so I emptied it and went to recycle it, but there was no recycling bin in the room so what did I do I threw it in the garbage.. opps But I know many people do the very same thing. I like to say that if there was a recycling bin in the room I would have recycled it, but thats a simple excuse. And the fact is there was a recycling bin right out the door of the room.

So why do people not recycle?

  1. recycling is “inconvenient”: This is most likely the main reason people do not recycle, but is probably the weakest argument. We are just being lazy.
  2. no space to recycle
  3. what is in it for me: We can’t see the benefits of recycling.
  4. recycling doesn’t make a great difference, so whats the point?
  5. it just to hard: “I have to have everything separated and go to certain facilities to recycle certain products”
  6. who cares
  7. I will recycle next time… yah right
  8. does recycling really save money. Buying a brita filter water bottle, you still need to buy expensive filters all the time
  9. someone goes through the garbage and pulls out the recycling: nope thats a poor myth

BUT

there are many reasons we should

  1. recycling saves energy: it save energy because the manufacturer doesn’t have to make something new
  2. helps to reduce the changing landscape from landfills: we are running out of space for landfills therefore we need to find ways of recycling
  3. recycling is good for the economy: recycled goods use less material, saves money, and materials
  4. protects the wildlife and our resources: if we don’t recycle the waste it could end up in oceans or other animal habitats which ultimately destroy their habitats
  5. would help aid our climate problems: reduces greenhouse gases
  6. limits pollution
  7. creates jobs
  8. increases new demand for recyclable products
RECYCLE

RECYCLE

We need to start making space to recycle and make it a number one priority . We are constantly making up excuses for why we can’t when really the answers are pretty simple. If there isn’t a spot for you to recycle in our everyday life, then but in bin in there. Be proactive. We may not see the need to recycle right away, but it will help in the long run and for future generations. As seen perviously in the Mobro 4000, we are running out of room to store our waste therefore we must recycle.

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The Garbage Traveller: Mobro 4000

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I have recently been researching the negative effects of recycling and I came across the Mobro 4000. The Mobro 4000 is a infamous barge that carried 3000 tons of New York Cities garbage up and down the coast lines trying to find somewhere to port. The Mexican Navy denied the entrance into its waters. along with various ports refused to dock the barge, therefore it return to Long Island.The barge was given a temporarily restraining order. hat created a controversial legal battle and debate about recycling and the waste in America. This issue sparked a campaign for a more environmentally friendly way of reducing our waste. I think this was quite embarrassing for the United States that they had to make such a large failed trip around the coast because they had no room to put their waste. but I believe it was something that needed to happen to show the world this ever-growing problem.

Mebro 4000

Mebro 4000

As was shown, we do not have room for all this waste our world is creating, we are running out of space for landfills and they are changing the landscape of our world.

I found out that a children’s book was created to illustrates the importance of “reducing, reusing, and recycling.”

Here Comes The Garbage Barge! BY Jonah Winters

Here Comes The Garbage Barge! BY Jonah Winters

Here’s a video that documents some of its travels:

“Because it carried what was to many essentially a pile of nothing, the “gar-barge” was, as it was called, became a magnet for symbols. As it trawled down the coast, the barge was, variously, a clarion call for recycling (before an inevitable backlash), a toxic ticking time-bomb, a signal of a country gone to waste, or the punchline of a joke, in that Barthesque, sad funny way. That’s all captured quite well in the first installment of Retro Report, a new documentary series in collaboration with the New York Times.”

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