Final Project Draft: Found Object Art

Audience: Progressive, local arts magazine

Found Object Art: A Portrait of Ourselves

Humans are first class innovators, producers and consumers: we live in a world of soft drinks and candy bars, tennis shoes and light bulbs, hair spray and cell phones. But along with these luxuries come the cans, wrappers, boxes, bottles, papers and millions of other junk that gets thrown away, or at best, recycled. Or, even better, gets turned into art.

Our trash and recyclables are so colorful, it’s no wonder it drew the eyes of burgeoning modern artists looking for cheap artistic mediums. However, these once thrifty projects have turned into a global trend, some projects taking on a grand scale that goes beyond settling for quick fix material.

Found art thrives on its universality because everyone can appreciate the ingenuity of reusing everyday objects. People who don’t know much about art can pick apart the materials the artist used and appreciate the innovation of the artist. Additionally, found art is the study of what humans throw away. It can be seen at first as a movement towards “going green” due to the current day trend towards being environmentally friendly. However, if an artist was simply striving to be in on the “green scene” he or she would probably design a “green” graphic T or hold an environmental fundraiser at a gallery opening.

Not to say that found artists are not trying to make a statement about consumerism and excess. Some are. Yet the way these artists make their statement is through the human behavior that affects the environment, rather than jumping on the bandwagon environmental trend, which tends to be a phenomenon of the upper class. Found art is more personable, more representational, speaking to the public through our own foibles. Thus found art can be seen as an anthropological study serving as a work of art.

The internet has changed the art world for the better in terms of publicity. Small town artists now have the chance to display their work in the biggest gallery on the planet—the virtual gallery. For found artists especially, the internet has provided a big break. Websites spread knowledge to people who wouldn’t know about the cutting edge art movements that usually start in large cities. Now such movements spread through the internet like wildfire, creating more recycle artists and more admirers of the trade.

One such website, Recyclart.org, allows artists to share their work online to gain publicity and possible buyers. The site has a clear environmental message, stating that, “The goal of Recyclart.org is to bring you good products that are made from re-cycling, re-using, up-cycling,etc. …we have to see things in a different way and learn how to RE-use, RE-cycle and RE-duce our materials and products consumption in order to decrease our footprint!”

Their contributors are not always as passionate about their environmental message. “Guixot de 8,” a group from a small town near Barcelona, Spain, uses recyclable materials to create toys and games. On their website they claim to travel around the world in a van filled with scrap iron that they convert into elaborate structures with movable parts once they stop in a town square. The group enjoys making the toys and having fun along the way, using scrap iron because it was a readily available, free material.

Another website promoter of recycle artists is Webdesignerdepot.com. They specialize in providing a space for advanced found object artists to show off their stuff. The founders say in their mission statement: “The artists featured here exclusively use recycled and/or trash to make pieces of contemporary art. These artists practice the art of “upcycling”, or literally turning everyday trash into creative treasures.” Again, the term “up-cycling” is used to put found objects above their usual status as junk.

One of the highlights of Webdesignerdepo.com is husband and wife team Tim Noble and Sue Webster. They collect discarded items on the streets of London to create heaps of ordinary trash, unremarkable until a light is shone on the pile to reveal an intricate
silhouette image, usually a depiction of the couple themselves.

Also featured is New Hampshire native and sustainably living artist Tim Gaudreau. In his self-explainably titled piece "Self Portrait as Revealed by Trash: 365 days of photographing everything I threw out" he photographed everything he threw out for a year and collaged the photos in an exhibition that filled multiple rooms of a California gallery. His art is more social commentary than aesthetic product since he actually discards the objects. On the other hand, for artist Jason Mercier a fascination with the discarded objects themselves led to his work in recycle art. He specializes in making mosaic portraits out of unique materials, most notably celebrity portraits out of the celebrity’s own discarded objects. (Check out jasonmercier.com and click on “gallery” to see for yourself!)

For South Korean born artist Jean Shin, found art is all about social commentary. Her biography on her website states: “…her arresting installations reflect the individuals’ personal lives as well as collective issues that we face as a society.” For example, her piece “Chance City” (2009) was comprised of $32,404 worth of discarded "Scratch & Win" losing lottery tickets arranged into a city-like structure similar to a house of cards. He piece “Chemical Balance III” (2009) used thousands of empty prescription pill containers arranged with lights in a chandelier-like fashion. Both pieces comment on the excess and sense of hopelessness in American society. However, when asked about the comment on consumerism that she tries to make through her works, Shin responded: “Maybe just that it exists. My work wouldn't exist if I felt negativity toward that.”

With a more hopeful look at humanity, Shin’s work titled “Celadon Remnants” (2008) is a mosaic made out of broken Korean ceramic and glass. It is located in the heart of a Korean-American community in New York City. Shin intends for it to “speak to the rich, yet fractured, cultural history of the Korean diaspora. The pottery remnants were imported from Icheon, Korea as part of a cultural exchange.”
On a similar note of community building through found art, Kalamazoo College senior

Jenneva Scholz is working on a mosaic for Ministry with Community, a local homeless support shelter. The mosaic will be comprised of unwanted works from ceramic classes and dishes from the Resource Exchange Program at the college and the Salvation Army. She says, “It's a community project, so the members of ministry are actually making the mosaic, and we are coordinating it happening.”

Through the large scale efforts of Jean Shin and the local efforts of Jenneva Scholz, found object art takes on more than a role of depicting wasteful human behavior and offering a message for environmental friendliness. It is a form of community bonding; making something new through everyday objects.