Smart Art: The Recycled Art Trend

With handbags woven from colorful plastic remnants and bottle cap-studded jewelry seen on the trendiest of people on a daily basis, it is easy to see that the recycled art movement is gaining a huge following. As a fan of both art and recycling, I welcome this shift with open arms. Not only does it seem an excellent way to divert waste from landfills, but it can be truly pleasing to the eye when made well.

The popularity of recycled art extends to both the professional and recreational art worlds. A prominent example of large-scale professional recycled art is that of Vik Muniz, brought to public attention in the award-winning documentary Wasteland. Muniz works from photographs, arranging unorthodox materials such as chocolate syrup, spaghetti, or trash to resemble his subjects or images from art history. His recent “Pictures of Garbage” series catalogued the lived of catadores, or recycling pickers, in the enormous garbage heaps bordering Rio de Janeiro. Photographs of the work sold for thousands, benefitting their impoverished subjects, many of whom spoke forcefully about the need for waste reduction and recycling.

Jane Perkins has a similar artistic approach to trash, though her subjects are far more recognizable, as she portrays celebrities. Utilizing forks, beads, and other found objects from a sizable collection, Perkins’ work is a bit less gritty than Muniz’s.

Recycled art is not limited to trash, however. Heather Jansch, for instance, utilizes found driftwood to skillfully sculpt lifelike horses. Her work perhaps has a more widespread appeal.

In fact, there are few limitations to the creation of recycled art, with a substantial variety of recycled crafting sites for do-it-yourself projects allowing almost anyone to tackle the waste problem. Some would even venture to say that there are dangerously few limitations to recycled art; craftingagreenworld.com posts a list of the “10 Ugliest Pieces of Recycled Art,” ranging from a tire Buddha to a formless hanging agglomeration of plastic scraps.

Why is recycled art so popular? To me, recycled art succeeds alongside more traditional approaches to expression because it is endlessly intriguing. People are awestruck by the subtle and skillful ways that objects can be transformed from crumpled pieces to be thrown distastefully away into something beautiful and surprising. Such art comes almost automatically with a social message, and forces us all to reflect a little more deeply on the way we perceive our culture.

For green crafting ideas:

http://craftingagreenworld.com

References:

http://craftingagreenworld.com/2010/04/19/10-ugliest-pieces-of-recycled-art/

http://www.wendmag.com/greenery/2010/01/trashy-portraits/

http://www.ecofriend.com/entry/galloping-recycled-art-made-from-recycled-drift-wood/

http://foranaesthete.blogspot.com/2011/01/vik-muniz.html

http://www.wastelandmovie.com/index.html