OCAL. Doctormo Put Rubbish In Bin Signs clip art. 23 Jan. 2012. Clker. 22 Apr. 2012.
Trash with Class
The Art of Garbage
Colten Rogers
Professor Blackburn
English 2010
April 23, 2012
Style: A mixture of formal and informal.
Purpose: To inform students of found art, a nontraditional form of art.
Audience: Students.
Rogers 1
As human beings, we make art at our earliest years. From our first breaths in this world
art flows from our mouths in something only a parent can appreciate. After birth we continue
to make art. We scribble on pictures of Winnie the Pooh and make potato people. Later in life
we learn to draw in the lines and work with paints and oils. Since birth, we’ve been making art
out of anything and everything. If splotches of paint on canvas is art, then Winnie the Pooh with
lines growing from his body, and the potato sculptures are as well. So why can’t we make art
out of trash and junk?
In fact there are people who make art out of trash. They’re called garbage men. Just
kidding, they just work a crappy job. Sorry, lame joke, but there are actually people who make
art with trash. They’re called found artists. This term doesn’t just belong to trash however, but
to anything considered junk. They grab what they can, toss it together and make art with
rubbish. Virtually, found artists can make anything out of whatever they consider junk and
trash.
In Sayaka Ganz’s art emergence, he
uses plastic spoons and other simple
plastics to make two majestic horses leap
from a white wall. Even though it’s made of
nothing but found plastics, it’s a beautiful
and inspiring creation. Each horse flows
from the wall with a fluid like feel. The
sculptures each represent a living horse quite well, as they jump from the wall, and run against
Rogers 2
the wind. Each horse has equal scale, and dimension. The two horses have a horizontal
directional force as they run across a blank landscape of imagination. Wind the white horse,
and Night the black horse have a monochromatic color pattern.
There isn’t a story to the horses that I can find, but when I look at them, a story is
created in my mind. When I see this piece, I see a creation story represented through the
horses, much like Native American stories. Wind leads the way through the dimensions, to
bring wind to the newly created earth. Wind carries itself, much like wind would, if it could be
seen. It’s quick coming out of the gate and flows straight forwards with a majestic beauty.
Naturally, it comes to our world faster than Night, the black horse opposite Wind. Night is still
slightly in the other world and compared to Wind, Night is foreboding and strong. The way he
stands, the horse looks much bigger than Wind, as he canvases himself across the sky. As Night
powers through the Earth’s atmosphere, he shuts out the sun and brings with him a peaceful
night. As both horses run across the world, they carry with them both night and wind; a never
ceasing force.
From something made mostly of plastic spoons, they inspire and bring beauty to our
world. They are magnificent representations of horses, and worth displaying despite the junk
they’re made of. The worthless pieces of junk and trash can make art pieces worth a second
glance. Found art can be beautiful regardless of the material used.
Even objects made of trash can even be beautiful when put in the right light. Tim Nobel
& Sue Webster create people out of trash, but not in the way many would first think. Instead of
making sculptures of people with trash, they create mounds of trash that resemble people
Rogers 3
when shined on by light. They create silhouette people out of garbage. The garbage pile looks
pretty gross, but when the light shines
and the people appear, you can’t help
but be awe struck.
Dirty White Trash (With Gulls) is
an example of the art of trash
silhouettes. The sculpture is three
dimensional, and both the sculpture and
silhouette are proportionately the same
size. It is an organic sculpture, because it
needs to shape the human body. The
directional forces on the piece are vertical and the emphasis of the piece is on the silhouette.
There is also a lot of variety between the trash within the sculpture.
When I first look at the picture, the silhouette on the white wall stands out quickly, but
looking at the trash sculpture is difficult. At a quick glance, it’s nothing but a pile of garbage, but
with a long look, very few things stick out. I can see a Styrofoam cup, toilet paper, a container
of peanut butter, and a shoe. It took me at least a week to notice the extremely lucky seagulls
in front of the garbage having a snack. It’s definitely a busy picture, but an impressive one
nonetheless.
Rogers 4
In a series of pictures from Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait, Chris
Jordan shows how vast
consumerism is in
American Society. He
does this by representing
consumerist statistics
through a corresponding
object.
As an example, I’ll
use a picture called
Packing Peanut. Jordan
shows how many overnight packages are shipped by air every hour in America by using 166,000
packing peanuts. Now 166,000 might not sound like a lot on paper, but when you see 166,000
packing peanuts fly through the air, you can’t help but be dumbfounded by their sheer number.
Seeing is believing in this case, as reading the numbers just isn’t the same as seeing 166,000
packing peanuts sail through the air.
The picture that really blew me away though was Toothpicks. Toothpicks is a picture
comprised of one hundred million toothpicks! That’s an awful lot of toothpicks and it’s even
worse when you realize that all of the tooth picks represent something. They represent the one
hundred million trees that are cut down yearly in the United States for junk mail.
Rogers 5
Toothpicks is representational of a real grass prairie and blue sky. It is a very calm
landscape, with nothing but a slight breeze. The picture seems to have a continuous space that
goes on forever. It also has an equal balance between the grass and the sky. It is such a
beautifully calm landscape. It’s pretty amazing that he was able to create this piece using one
hundred million toothpicks. The vision he must have is incredible. It is a truly awesome picture,
which is both beautiful and most importantly, a reflection on our nation’s consumerism.
Toothpicks is not only enjoyable, but admirable as well. According to thesaurus.com,
being admirable is to be “held in great respect.” This means that regardless of someone’s
enjoyment with a certain piece of art, they can still appreciate or respect it. Speaking of
admiration, Mortimer J. Adler, an American philosopher said, “We call it beautiful because of
Rogers 6
certain properties.” In Toothpicks, the landscape may in fact be beautiful, and I think most
people would agree, but to be admirable, again from Adler, is to “. . . be meditated by thought
and dependent upon knowledge.” Without the knowledge that toothpicks is made of actual
toothpicks, the image would just be enjoyable, but because the image is made of one hundred
million toothpicks, it gains an extra bit of respect and becomes admirable; something everyone
can appreciate. The reason this is important and worth mentioning, is because even though
found art may only be enjoyable for some, it should be viewed as admirable by everyone. For
any of you considering found art, remember that even though people might not necessarily
enjoy your art, they will always respect it.
Some people may use paint, pencils, and clay, but others use what they find on the
ground. This being said, art can be made out of anything; including junk and trash. Next time
you walk over a dry piece of gum, it could be used in an astounding art piece. Remember that
splotches of paint might be the traditional way of art, but packing peanuts tumbling like snow
from space, has artistic beauty as well.
Rogers 7
Works Consulted
“7 Innovative Artists Who Create Art from Trash: Projected, Recycled and Other Amazing Art.”
Web Urbanist. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.
Adler, Mortimer. “Six Great Ideas.”
“Admirable.” Thesarus.com. 19 Apr. 2012.
Ganz, Sayaka. Emergence. sayakaganz.com. 2008. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.
Jordan, Chris. Toothpicks. chrisjordan.com. 2008. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.
Noble, Tim and Webster, Sue. Dirty White Trash (With Gulls).
timnobleandsuewebster.com. 1998. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.
“Non-Trashy Recycled and Trash Art.” Webdesigner Depot. 29 Dec. 2009. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.