America produces about 250 million tons of trash per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s enough garbage to cover the state of Texas two and a half times. For a new exhibit at the NY Studio Gallery in the Lower East Side called “Trash,” four artists created work that highlights our waste production by repurposing or depicting refuse in creative ways.
Curator Zeina Assaf billed the show as a display of work that would alter our negative reaction to waste by using it to create beautiful objects. Press material says that the artists “interpret waste afresh […] giving form to the old adage: ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.’” Given our society’s constant conversation about climate change and how to rethink design to be more earth-friendly, the show’s environmental message is clear.
Kim Holleman and Al Wadzinski deliver the strongest pieces in the show. Both artists create sculptures from materials that were destined for a landfill. Holleman, who is known for advancing an environmental message through her artwork, stitched together scraps to create sculptures of natural forms, like mountains, clouds, and bird nests.
In “Mountain Range,” she sewed blue and green plastic bags together to make a sloping installation piece that wraps around a corner of the gallery. She brought the landscape to life by creating rivers, treetops, and snowcaps with different colored bags.
In “Glacier,” she has created an environment out of the objects that threaten it: she stitched together white packing material to form a glacier-like sculpture. The flat square, pieces of foam have circles punched out of them, leaving only the empty circles. The scraps have jagged edges, making the sculpture look like a sharp piece of ice.
Wadzinski’s also promotes environmental awareness, but instead of creating landscapes, he plucks found objects from salvage yards, garage sales or alleys and repurposes them into clever creatures. In the piece “Chicken Little,” a toaster, a globe, and feather dusters come together to form a bird, while a pouch, baby doll arms, and stool legs find new life as a frog.
But his best piece is “Gargantua,” a nearly 6-foot tall gorilla head. Wadzinkski’s creative application of materials and attention to detail make the sculpture the star of the show. A dog igloo forms the top of its head; tire halves give it a furrowed brow; and plastic chair seats serve as ears. Pieces of a red bumper and a bejeweled pillow encircle its bowling ball eyes, and its leather mouth roars at viewers. Jagged scrap metal, locks, and a pair of clogs form its teeth. Even though Wadzinski has said that his art isn’t meant to be seen as “green,” his use of discarded items makes it impossible to not think of his art in terms of reuse and recycling.
Photographer Stephen Mallon and painter Michael Kareken, create detailed images of trash. Mallon has spent the last three years examining and documenting the recycling processes in the United States. His photographs in the show depict massive piles of materials ready to be recycled. By focusing on the details and closely cropping the images, he transforms the excess into abstract shapes. Shredded paper and wads of plastic wrap look like Magic Eye optical illusions while layers of scrap metal curl like soft ribbons.
Kareken also documents recycling facilities, but through oil paintings. In comparison to Mallon’s ultra-detailed photographs, Kareken’s paintings of organized bottles, chunks of metal, and car parts look silly and amateurish. Instead of transforming waste, he simply paints a picture of garbage.
However, neither the photographs nor the paintings have the same effect as the sculptures. Looking at a picture of trash, no matter how creatively shot or edited, just isn’t as compelling as examining an object created from it. Mallon’s and Kareken’s images simply restate the problem, while Holleman’s and Wadzinski’s sculptures offer creative transformations.
As Assaf intended, the work illustrates that one man’s trash can be another man’s treasure, but it also confronts us with just how much trash we produce. Waste is an unavoidable element of modern day living, but with the pressing need to preserve and protect our planet, it’s important to remember that the junk filling landfills and littering our streets is a product of human consumption.
TRASH is on view through January 8, 2011