Original Proposal

Art made from trash can be found in great variety of forms from the shadowed figures in exhibitions of Tim Nobel and Sue Webster’s work to classroom art projects.

In this Independent Study Project I aim to repurpose the discarded by making a series of art pieces out of found materials.  The actual plan for pieces is undetermined, as I have to leave room for inspiration from the materials I find.

As an outreach component to my project I will create a blog posting images of my projects as well as a description of how I crafted them and a list of the materials I used.  These will include photos of the materials: before, during and after. In creating this blog I hope to spread awareness of the pressing problem of consumption and overuse our society has grown accustomed to and encourage smarter use of products, so that materials produced are used more efficiently and less carelessly.

My projects will range in practicality; to demonstrate the repurposing of the everyday seemingly mundane I will make a range of transformed materials into décor or into objects serving an alternative function. This will appeal to a larger variety of people as the applicability of the project to their lives will be more tangible, but I also aim to create less functional projects as well, to try and push the crafter’s culture conception of recycled art. 

Bottle Caps

From when the alarm clock rings to the sound of the water splashing against your plastic toothbrush lined with toothpaste, to when you enter the kitchen and pack your lunch in a disposable bag hop into your car and top off the tank, your daily motions are inundated and even defined by use of petroleum based products. Popular consciousness of one’s individual oil consumption is typically limited to that of their fuel consumption, the everyday encounters glanced over in familiar disregard. For this piece my objective was to focus the viewer’s attention to the wide-spread use of petroleum in expected and rather unannounced places.  I chose to use bottle caps taken from plastic soda bottles, milk jugs, water bottles, condiment dispensers, etc. to make collages of logos from popular brands. The potent monochromatic coloration of the caps is a testament to the mass production of petroleum products, the viewer’s familiarity with them further intimating their omnipresence in contemporary living.  These collages manifest in a series of six pieces, a Behr logo referencing the petrochemicals used in paints in both fine art and home improvement spheres, Round-Up logo representing the petroleum found in fertilizers and other plant care products, McDonalds logo representing the to-go materials of the restaurant industry, Tupperware logo representing the use of plastics in the kitchen, BMW logo referencing the petroleum based fuel as well as plastic parts used in transportation, and the Apple logo representing the use of petroleum products in the computer and technology industry. 

 To include a drawing in my found art portfolio, I was inspired by the MOMA's exhibit, On Line, in which drawings took on three dimensions, were completed with non-traditional tools, some void of paper.  I decided to use bottle caps as my medium in creating this semi two dimensional work. I was struck by the abundance of these circular shapes that decorate our daily routine. Not recyclable in most places, these objects may seem small, but amount to a great mass with the frequency with which one person both uses and disposes of them. I decided to create a series of logos, reminiscent of both the consumptive culture which creates these disposable items and the mass production with which it is done, of companies that use petrochemicals in their products.

To begin, I researched companies that specifically used petroleum based products and collected a variety of logos; I wanted a wide array to choose from as I wasn't sure collectively, what I would have the right colored bottle caps for. I collected the bottle caps from my own daily use, but I did not have a large number nor enough, so I got the majority of them from my local Reuse Center. This research took approximately two hours from beginning to final decision. For each logo I assembled the design individually, then measured the final size so that I could cut the wood for the backs of each piece. When I was finished arranging each piece I began to tape them together with blue painters tape so that they wouldn't move in transit. The time to assemble and secure each logo varied, as they are all greatly different sizes, but it averaged about forty five minutes to an hour for each one. After each board was cut, I painted them solid white so as to match the wall they would be hung upon. Once they were all dry, I transferred the taped bottle caps onto the wooden frames and row by row began to hot glue them down, another petroleum based product. The larger pieces took between forty five minutes and an hour and a half to glue down, the smaller ones went by a lot quicker.

Upon reflection of my completed works, I am not terribly please with the turnout, and there are a few things I think would have enhanced this project. Instead of mounting them on wooden frames, it would have been interesting to submerge the caps into a mold of clear gel. This method was beyond my means, as I do not have any experience in mold making or familiarity with gel mediums. Another potential idea would have been to melt the bottle caps into molds, creating a more solid plaque.

 There is an inherent precariousness in working with such recognizable and easily identifiable material such as company logos from capitalist America. I worry that the environmental and political implications I aimed to invoke in this piece are not as easily read behind these icons and will reflect upon ways to revise this concept or another project that more successfully invokes such connections.

Plastic Bags

One technique I was really interested in trying out was the creating of fusible plastic, transforming plastic disposable bags into a sewable fabric. The tools necessary to make the fabric are few, all one needs is plastic bags, from supermarkets or department stores, scissors, parchment paper and an iron. Many have used this process to make items ranging wraps for sandwiches, replacing the daily use of Ziploc bags with a washable alternative, to coin purses and tote bags. This item is commonplace in many homes, as a great majority of shopping, from groceries, to household items, to clothing is sent home in plastic shopping bags and therefore a readily available material. 

Many a plastic bag lie in piles on the kitchen counters of homes, or reused in trash cans, but others make their way outdoors and take flight into our waterways. These trash bags are a dangerous water pollutant, as they pose a threat to the safety of animals. Plastic bags can easily be mistaken for jellyfish, the water inflating them and keeping them in a motion reminiscent of the jellyfish. A natural predator to the jellyfish, sea turtles innocently eat these pollutants, which constrict their digestive system and have fatal consequences. In an unjust twist of fortune, the bags by which humans carry the food home to sustain themselves cause a blockade in many sea turtles, leading them to starve to death.  A delicate yet deadly creature, the colorless appearance of the produce bags mimics that of the jellyfish’s body, the texture added by the ironing process a direct reflection of their membranous skin. This piece comments on the harmful environmental effects the consumptive culture creates. Even within seemingly small acts of pollution, such as the improper disposal of a plastic bag, the cumulative effect is much greater than typically foreseen, the larger than life scale of the creature a testament to such ignorance.  

In executing this project I chose to use clear grocery bag, typically for produce, grains, and nuts. This transparent material emulates the appearance of many jellyfish's bodily form. The collection of these materials was simple, the bags I began collecting weeks before I began from the pantry's of friends and family, and I assume in need one could raid the recycling bins of a neighborhood grocery store.

To begin, I cut the ends off of each bag, so that they were long rectangular shapes. I then cut out the portion of the bag with all writing on it, so that I was left with entirely clear rectangular shapes. This process was fairly fast, I was using a large number of plastic bags so I spent a good two hours dissecting these bags.

The next phase was to begin ironing the plastic bags, to make fusible plastic, two sheets of plastic bags are needed so that a sturdy material is produced. In order to iron the sheets together, they have to be placed between two sheets of parchment paper, so they do not melt to anything but each other. It is reccomended that this process be done outside if not in a well ventilated room, as some forms of plastic produce fumes when they are melted down.

To most effectively fuse the plastic, the iron musts be set to a low temperature using quick and even strokes across the length of the bags. This prevents the bags from shrinking to too small of a size.  One thing to make sure of is that the bags are in fact fusing together, if done too quickly some of the bags do not and can easily pull apart. Orderly and even strokes across the bags will also prevent the formation of air bubbles in the fabric. As the bags are ironed they appear to be a bit shriveled, mimicking the membranous exterior of a jellyfish's body. As aligning the bags was a meticulous process, in total, the ironing of the plastic bags I used took at least six hours.

As the structure of the jellyfish's body I used an old ripped umbrella. The first step involved using a hand saw to remove the long handle on the inside of the stem, making sure that the spokes were locked in an extended position before doing so.

Then on the outer section of the stem, I used a power drill to make a hole, to allow for ease of hanging when it is to be displayed. Then I used a seam ripper to remove the fabric from the frame. Initially I planned on saving the fabric to use as a pattern for the plastic bag material, but I later discovered that as the fabric was stretchy, without the tension of the spokes it was too small to serve as a base.  Combined, the modification of the umbrella took half an hour.

To make a pattern for the fabric, I measured the width of the umbrella and made a life-size pattern from newspaper to ensure I had gotten the measurements correct. I repeated this process for the circle on the inside of the frame, as I was to make a bell covering for that circle as well. The outer circle had a diameter of forty eight inches, the inner of twenty four.

Each of the eight triangles that composed the frame were at a ninety degree angle, so I cut out one triangle pattern and began to cut the bags accordingly, making sure to leave enough room for seaming. I cut the sides of the triangles that were to be overlapping with a beveled edge to limit the number of harsh lines in the final product. In total the pattern making and fabric cutting took forty five minutes.

I wanted to make sure nothing had gone wrong in the transfer of pattern to cut, so i used straight pins to line up each triangle in the shape of the umbrella.   The only issue I ran into was that not all of the pieces were long enough at the bottom, as I wanted them to drape over, so I marked which pieces I needed to add some length to and then began to iron them all together, making two half circles. Before I ironed the two halves together I wanted to make sure I had the seams tight enough so that there was a limited amount of draping in each panel, and had to make sizing adjustments accordingly. I then trimmed the sides that hung over using a scalloped cut.

Once I had the top dome completed I moved on to the inner circle and used the same process, but I didn't run into any sizing problems so the process went by much quicker. Altogether this process took five hours.

In hopes of producing no waste, I used the strips of plastic bags, cut out from the original because of their green print to make tentacles. I proceeded the same way, ironing two strips of bags, with the writing fused on top of itself. I then fused two of these strips together at on of their ends, forming a longer strip. From there I began to bunch the plastic bags into half circles, collecting the excess in a pinch. I then ironed this together, alternating sides, to form a snakelike shape. I did this repeatedly, finally ironing them all together to form one long tentacle. This process took approximately thirty to forty five minutes per tentacle, with sixteen tentacles in total I spent about ten hours on these alone. Jellyfish are equipped with two sets of tentacles, these larger (usually) ones for feeding and reproduction located toward the center of their body, as well as a set of smaller ones on the perimiter for transportation and protection. To make these tentacles I used the scraps leftover from trimming the bags into triangles and cut thin strips with a beveled design. I added around eight of these tentacles to each of the eight triangles, ironing them in the same process as I did to secure the panels together. These tentacles took about two hours to execute.

To assemble the jellyfish I used fishing line, both to string the tentacles as well as to hang the piece itself. I chose this material because of it's clear color and use within the water.

Upon reflection of my completed work, I am pleased with the way this piece turned out. To make the process run more smoothly a smaller iron would have been useful, as would a device to allow me to hang the piece sturdily while I was still constructing it. Using large clear trash bags could have been more time efficient for the large piece of the body, so as only to have used one or two rather than many small grocery bags. For future creations I can play with different plastic materials such as cellophane tissue paper, so that the jellyfish could have a colored tint to them. Another possible idea would be to create the tentacles in a way so that they could have had a filler inside them,  and have been even more three dimensional.  This piece would be interesting as part of a series. It would be interesting to see a large number of these hung at varying heights in an enclosed space in close proximity to one another, in a manner that entangles the viewer, a mirror to the sea turtle's entrapment.

Pantyhose

Growing up in a household with biologists as parents, this piece was inspired by their environmental take on childhood arts and crafts.  A fun and easy party favor, we used to take knee-high stockings and make “Wilson heads”, planting grass seeds as hair and adorning them with googley-eyed faces.  I wanted to take this controlled growth to another level with the creation of a life-sized human frame. Essentially a corporeal plant bed, this piece can be read as a meditation on the impermanence of life.  I aim to implore the viewer to recognize their own transitory existence, as well as that of the life and accompanying death that surrounds them. The placement of the piece in a common space a reflection on the unexpectedness death can have.  This piece can also be viewed as a more biological or spiritual piece in its tie between humanity and nature. The dynamic ever-changing nature of this piece in the life and death of the soil and seed that compose the substance of the interior, as well as the decomposition of the form as a whole reinforce these associations and embolden the piece with a life cycle of it’s own. 

As I had begun with pantyhose of all different colors, I wanted to try and unify the colors more so that they were not only somewhat believable as a skintone but also more earthy. To do this I used a Rit brand dye remover. Following the directions on the package, I simmered the water and then stirring the powder in. I added the pantyhose next, allowing enough room for movement. This process was repeated multiple times as I had many pantyhose to do, but seemed to work better in batches as the dye leaked into the water and began to tint the pantyhose a copper color when left in too long. This process took about an hour in total. 

After all the darker pantyhose had been through the removal process they needed to be soaked and washed before any further dying could take place. Each individual garnment took on a different shade of light peach-beige. I'd never used this product previously so did not know what to expect but thought that the lighter color would be a good place to start as it was more similar to the other colors now. Washing the dye out took twenty minutes. 

 After stripping the color from the darker pantyhose I began to dye all of them using a beige Rit dye. This process was very similar to that of removing the color except they were not to be simmered on the stove, just sitting in hot water. Each batch took a different amount of time to complete as the starting point of the color was not the same for all. I did six batches of dyeing, in total taking about an hour and a half. As before the dyed nylon had to be rinsed through both warm and cold water and then washed before use. This took an additional half an hour. Upon completion the pantyhose remained in a set of varing shades but I think their closer similarity helped in creating less of a patchwork appearance.

I used the knee-high stockings to make the hands and feet. In order to make fingers and toes, I used my own body to hold the shape of the fabric, and sewed the nylon into the shapes so that it would hold up. This took nearly an hour for each appendage but was the best way to do this as I wanted to make the body life-sized. Assembling the body did not take long. I used a pair of tights as they were designed for the legs, cutting the feet off. The arms were each one leg of a pair of stockings, the chest composed of a few pieces. I sewed each piece together as I went, as stuffing the fabric would have grown more complicated working through the fabric of the entire body rather than that immediate part.

As the body was now laid out the next step was to begin stuffing the pieces. I used dampened potting soil to fill the pantyhose and sprinkled rye grass seed generously at the top of each piece. It became increasingly important to stuff each piece individually from the bottom up as it allowed me to secure the soil as much as possible, as well as ensured i could reach back as far as I needed to to spread the seed. In total I used nearly 100 pounds of potting soil and spent twenty four hours in construction of the body itself. The next phase of this project was a more passive traditional plant care regimen of sunlight and water.

I am really satisfied with how this project transpired. For future constructions I will now know to trim all of the stockings, as the tighter they are the better they held the soil in place. Transportation of this piece was rather difficult, a lot of its original shape and stability were lost in the relocation, so I now know to build all such pieces on site to prevent such damage.

I wanted to include an example of one of the stages this piece will cycle through, as the grass has grown. Pictured on the right is an example of the craft that inspired this piece, as they would typically include faces on the side, the grass acting as hair. This particular piece from planting is shown at ten days growth.