Layers of Meaning

Trashformations - art from the junk heap

"Have you ever wanted to ride an Electrolux motorcycle? Or wear a dress made out of bicycle tires? Discover how east coast artists are crafting everyday trash into extraordinary works of art in Trashformations East. New England thrift is taken to a new extreme in this exhibition featuring work by 112 artists who use found objects or recycled materials in unique ways. These artists find creative uses for other people’s garbage, making lingerie out of soda cans, jewelry from expired coupons and furniture out of everything from skis to lawn mowers. "

Curator Lloyd Herman, founding director of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, comments on art made from trash: "Why do artists choose the cast-offs of others with which to make art? Some are attracted to the colorful patterning of grocery store packaging, or magazine photos, or playing cards. Others like the texture of old shingles or chromed car trim. And some will see in the form of pencils, bedpans or clock hands new possibilities for them in art. Sometimes a shape will remind them of something else, but almost all makers like found objects for their art because such discards are usually free.
There are long traditions in America, and elsewhere, of castoffs in both mainstream sculpture and in folk art. We need think only of the uses that Louise Nevelson made of ten pins, wood shoe forms, and other familiar wood shapes in her wall assemblages. Or the witty toys made from coffee can tins for which Alexander Calder was revered. The creative re-use that Robert Rauschenberg, John Chamberlain, and Mark DiSuvero brought to refuse also come to mind."

Boston.com has a slide show of a few of the objects on display. The textile / fiber art works include:

• Dora Hsiung - a composition of yarn scrap displayed in a grid of clear CD cases.
• Donna Rhae Marder - a tea pot made of Twinings tea bags
• Diane Savona, a 'dress' made of old potholders, aprons, dish cloths, towels

Curator Lloyd Herman comments on a few of the fiber artworks:

"Lace-trimmed handkerchiefs may remind us of our grandmothers, setting us up for wistful references to a suggested past....

Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch's "Trashy Lingerie" -skimpy undergarments woven of soft drink can strips-would be pretty uncomfortable to wear. While revealing and sexually provocative, this underwear would also function as an impenetrable chastity belt. The mixed message seems to say "desire me, but don't touch me!" Perhaps these undergarments would be worn under Katherine Cobey's "Danger Dress" made of plastic warning tapes used by firemen and police. Another form of "protection" shown here is Diane Savona's "Domestic Armor," a garment made of oven mitts and pot holders.

Alyce Santoro has woven fabric from used music cassette tapes, and has fashioned from it garments that can not only be worn, but played-and have been, by Phish percussionist Jon Fishman, using recordings of his own music and that which has inspired him.

How about clothing a tree? Sarah Hollis Perry has knitted sweaters from recycled plastic bags to give trees a dash of style (if not warmth) with water-repellent color."

The Trashformations East exhibit was inspired by the original 1998 Trashformations show at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington. The 1998 exhibit lives on in book form (upper right). See your local library for a copy; its unfortunately been out of print for years.