Wall of… Waste? (WOW?)
AOD debuted a new sculptural installation last week at the ICC Sydney for the 2023 Australasian Waste & Recycling Expo (AWRE). The installation, titled Wall of Waste? (WOW?), was constructed using cardboard, plastic, packaging and various other materials and found objects that were salvaged and locally sourced over the course of three weeks leading up to the event.
WOW? was conceived to challenge perceptions about waste and to encourage consumers to think twice before throwing out items that could be reused or recycled. By blurring the lines between waste and art, WOW? invites viewers to reconsider the lifespan of materials typically thought of as waste with the hope that by learning to see beauty and potential in all materials, we can extend their value and meaning beyond their originally intended use. By conceptually and literally presenting waste from a new angle, the installation calls for expediting the transition from a Take-Make-Waste system to one where we instead Take Waste and Make something new and meaningful with it.
Image Gallery
The Opportunity
AWRE is an annual conference and trade show for the waste management, recycling and resource recovery sector. About a month before the event, I reached out to the event organisers with a proposal to do an art installation on the exhibition floor. The installation would be waste and recycling themed, of course, but beyond just using waste materials as the medium to construct the piece, I also felt this would be an ideal venue to encourage people to see materials that are typically thought of as ‘waste’ in a new way, as works of art in their own right, not just waste.
The Concept
I had noticed that AWRE was using some Bauhaus geometric patterns in a colour palette of yellow, blue and green in its branding for the event, so I wanted to incorporate some of these graphic elements and colours into the installation.
I also love collage and assemblage as art forms and I’ve always wanted to do something with anamorphic signage, so my idea was to combine these approaches aesthetically but also thematically and materially – to essentially create an assemblage of ‘waste’ designed to present waste from a new perspective, literally.
Sourcing Materials
Reclaimed building materials are Art of Diversion’s primary focus, and I initially thought about constructing the structural base for this installation using reclaimed timber, but I think that would’ve been a little more challenging and time consuming than I had time for. More importantly, I really needed the wall to be quite large while also being lightweight and easily reconfigurable and portable. So, while cardboard and plastic are not necessarily my preferred medium, in this case they were just what I needed… and it was all too easy to find materials to work with.
Art like this is about working with whatever materials are at hand, and, for better or worse (let’s agree, for worse), anyone living in pretty much any city will find that there is no shortage of cardboard and plastic readily available everywhere. We’re addicted to the stuff.
In addition to finding a lot of what I needed for the wall around my own home and simply by walking around my neighbourhood a few times, I also sourced a few items from Gumtree (for free or next to nothing). Apps like Gumtree and online groups like Buy Nothing and Street Bounty are super handy for artists and makers, and I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to support your local second-hand economy.
I also want to give a huge shout out to two local social enterprise/environmental organisations.
First, a huge thanks to Reverse Garbage, a not-for-profit creative reuse centre based in Marrickville that is an incredible source of all kinds of materials that are perfect for projects like mine. Reverse Garbage runs some terrific educational programs and workshops that are very much aligned with AOD’s mission. They stock a fantastic assortment of eclectic materials, and it’s the kind of place where I could spend hours browsing.
I got some key items for the wall from Reverse Garbage, and had it not been for the materials that I discovered there, I’m not sure how this project would’ve turned out.
Secondly, I want to also thank Banish whose Banish Recycling and Disposal Program (BRAD) is putting a huge dent in the plastic waste problem and also helping to educate the local community about how to recycle and properly dispose of those hard-to-recycle household items.
If you’re in the Sydney area, support these awesome local organisations!
Constructing the ‘Canvas’
As mentioned, I needed the wall to be pretty lightweight. My ‘canvas’ was made out of a series of uniform columns that were about 2.5 metres (8 feet) tall, each column made up of 21 cubes, each cube formed out of 8 smaller boxes. In total, I constructed the cubes using 168 cardboard boxes!
If you’re wondering why I didn’t just use fewer bigger boxes, it’s because this wall needed to fit within a certain size space for the event (so the dimensions were dictated by that and needed to be rather precise) and also because these were the only boxes that I could find on short notice given my shoestring budget and time constraints. Using fewer bigger boxes would’ve been easier and much less time consuming, I just wasn’t able to find enough boxes that were the perfect size for the columns that I wanted to make, but I was okay with that given that this was an exercise in using found objects and readily available materials. Plus, as it turned out, the smaller boxes ended up working quite well structurally.
Experimentation with Materials and Ideas for Future Projects
Making Wall of Waste? (WOW?) led to a couple of other little experiments with spare materials that I had collected.
My Garbage Homage to the Square was an homage to Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square:
My Homage to Assemblage was my homage to one of my all-time favourite Kiwi/Australian artists, Rosalie Gascoigne:
Now that I’ve accumulated a lot of cardboard and plastic materials to work with, I am planning to embark on a series of works that expand on these ideas.
Interpretations of the Wall
It was very interesting hearing what people thought of the wall as it was coming together and at the event. I wasn’t necessarily going for anything provocative; my intent was primarily for it to be a subtle critique of consumerism and excessive packaging. I just want to encourage people buy less stuff to begin with and to think twice before tossing out materials that could be reused. At no point was WOW? meant to have anything to do with any of the following:
Ukraine – I can totally see why anyone would think that.
IKEA – I can’t imagine why anyone would think that.
Plastic waste in the oceans/on the beach – I see it, and we definitely have plenty of work to do to solve that seemingly insurmountable problem.
Monument Valley (the video game) – I can’t unsee it now.
Alcoholism – In fairness, I sourced a bunch of the cardboard packaging that I applied to the wall from a local liquor store, so several people thought the wall had something to do with alcohol… I suppose it’s possible that I may have subconsciously been crafting a message about being several months sober or unwasted while working on this project.
The Matildas – This event was, after all, during the Women’s World Cup being hosted in Australia with World Cup festivities taking place right outside the convention centre.
The point is that the above were all things that people said came to mind when they saw the wall. Although none of these ‘themes’ were intentional at all, I can totally understand why people would think that they were somehow intended given the colour palette and some of the materials. I’ll count them as happy accidents. That’s the beauty of art sometimes. It can be open to endless interpretation. An artist’s intent is, after all, only one part of the art experience equation. The rest is up to the viewer.
Despite being a critique of consumerism and the single-use ‘disposable’ culture and lifestyle habits of excess that perpetuate the waste problem, the overall message of WOW? is meant to be hopeful. If nothing else, one solution to the world’s waste problem is to find creative new uses for materials that would otherwise end up in landfill. While this may not address the underlying problem of society’s current linear system of Take-Make-Waste or the fact that we need to dramatically reduce the amount of stuff that is produced in the first place, WOW? is designed to draw attention to the unique potential of art to help shift the conversation about waste and reuse.
For a more in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the making of the installation as well as some insights and lessons learned about using reclaimed materials on projects like this, check out this YouTube video:
