The smell of rotting tidbits of that turkey sandwich you couldn’t finish, scraps of torn trash bags that have burst open because they cannot hold the weight of the enormous amounts of waste inside them, the inevitable shards of glass from empty and half full beer bottles left tossed aside at was sure a lively bar, all culminating together, marinating, creating the smell of the dump: Not the place where you would expect to find inspiration and the means to give birth to a work of art. Not the place at all. However, underneath all the mess are hidden gems just waiting to find their way to a masterpiece. Case-in-point proven by local San Francisco artists who use the dump right here in San Francisco, called Recology, as a place to scavenge materials that will be transformed into something unrecognizable through a program at the dump called Artists In Residence program. One of the artists currently in residence, Ferris Plock, a well-known artist in San Francisco has had great success finding materials so far, “On any given day, I can find paints, brushes, panels, sandpaper, canvas, stains, paper, etc... Basically, Recology can supply me with all the materials I could ever want, for free. I accomplished near to nothing the first two weeks because I was too busy processing the sheer quantity of stuff that moves through a place like Recology every single day.” Artists like Ferris Plock are relishing in the joy of creating art that is not only aesthetically amazing, but birthed from recycled materials that are ultimately good for the environment.
/Melinda & Blair
Works Cited:
Plock, Ferris. Personal Interview by Blair Reed. 26 Nov 2010.
This art is amazing! I love how the artists reuse materials found here in the city. Beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Cool way of making art!
ReplyDelete