One of the best things about artists is that they can find inspiration anywhere, including the garbage bin. Art made from ordinary trash gives new meaning to the old saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. People all over the world have found their own way to give back to nature by giving trash a new purpose. But how did this trend start, and why does it matter so much for the art world and for the planet?
A brief history of junk art
Before recycled art, there was junk art. And junk art grew out of another trend: found art. The man who coined the term was Marcel Duchamp, the most praised figure of the Dada movement. Duchamp said that art is only a context, and the artist can turn any manufactured object found on the street into art. Acting on that idea, Duchamp took a urinal that he found, named it “Fountain” and called it “readymade art”.
Duchamp’s bold move began junk art, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that “Junk Art” was declared a real movement, thanks to Robert Rauschenberg’s work. Rauschenberg experimented with scrap metal, machinery pieces and other objects found in the trash to make paintings and sculptures, which he then called his “combines“. With those combines, Rauschenberg is arguably the artist who did the most to prove that art can be found in anything.
A few other names are worth mentioning too, such as Arman, or by his real name, Armand Fernandez. Arman’s most famous piece is called “Home Sweet Home“, made from gas masks glued together.
The concept behind recycled art
Recycled art does come from junk art, which focuses on using disposables to create works of art, but it can stretch to cover full representations of art, often called conceptual art practices. These conceptual works, such as Tracey Emin’s “My Bed“, show everyday items without changing their purpose. In “My Bed” Emin displays her own bed, unmade, stained and surrounded by other personal items she brought from her home.
In the present day, recycled art has walked out of the art galleries and moved onto social media, where it spread fast. Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube are full of accounts that back up Duchamp and Rauschenberg’s words and prove that art really is everywhere. Clothes made from Christmas garlands, furniture crafted from recycled plastic bottles: the internet has found a way to repurpose everything. And while some of it shows genuine creativity, people keep wondering whether all of it can really be called art.
Is there, indeed, art everywhere?
There’s nothing wrong with being crafty and reducing waste by repurposing nearly everything, but is it wise to call those items works of art? Not exactly. Still, among all the DIY projects, some contemporary artists have given real meaning to recycling and upcycling.
One example is Alejandro Aravena, an architect from Chile, who in 2016 created an art installation for the Venice Art and Architecture Biennale. He used metal parts from display shelves that had been used at a previous Biennale edition. This is a good example of recycled art, because the artist made the piece to get other artists’ attention on pollution.
Other artists have found their own ways to work with trash, such as Tim Noble and Sue Webster, who met in London while attending the same art school. They turn pieces of timber, metal and plastic into sculptures whose shadows paint unexpected pictures on the walls behind them when light is projected.
David Mach, another artist who works with recycled materials, found his inspiration in coat hangers. He uses old coat hangers to build sculptures, and by sticking out the hooks he creates a blurry effect that gives his sculptures dimension.
Does it leave too little to the imagination?
One concern raised about trash art or recycled art is that it may have lost the true meaning of art, which is to challenge people’s imagination, and has started to focus too much on activism. By leaving the “paper and paint” environment behind and using scrap materials like metal, plastic or everyday trash, some believe artists are taking away the harmlessness of art itself.
When an artist chooses, say, plastic dug out from the bottom of a lake, even to create a sculpture of two lovers holding hands, the real meaning may lie more in the material than in what the sculpture shows.
John Angus Chamberlain, one of the most emblematic sculptors of Post-War America, is famous for using industrial materials in his compositions. Some critics have called him out on his materials for the reasons above, but a simple look at Chamberlain’s sculptures shows that their concept says more than their materials. Chamberlain never addressed the criticism of his use of scrap materials from Cadillac and Oldsmobile vehicles, which seemed to criticize the so-called “American freedom”. But to think he is unaware of the materials he uses would be a mistake. What Chamberlain does is leave the meaning up to the viewer and focus only on the act of creation.
Using trash and recycled items to create art can be read in many ways. One person may say the artist is sending a hidden message, while another may say the message is not hidden at all. And that is the beauty of art: it makes people chase after the meaning behind the creation.
