Gowns of Chip Bags, Masterpieces of ‘Rubbish’: Where Recycling is Art
London Artists Focus Their Creativity on Recycling Awareness, Global Consumerism and the Climate Crisis
In order to keep up with demand, major industries like fuel, agriculture, fashion, and transportation have resorted to unsustainable methods of production and methods of recycling.
As the global population is growing, large corporations are finding faster means of production that aren’t as environmentally conscious. Turning a blind eye to the consequences of the heightened production is something easily done by the majority. Although small things like a cigarette butt, a piece of gum stuck on the sidewalk, or a coffee cup that just barely missed the trash can be seemingly unimportant, these may have a ripple effect on the overall environment in the city of London.
Artist Aínne Burke is based in London, where she explores the relationship between climate activism, science, and art.
“I take things no one looks at and turn them into things they don’t want to take their eyes off of,” said Burke. In one of her main exhibitions with the Imperial College of London, she used litter collected off the streets of London to craft pieces of elegant attire. Her artistic pieces were then worn at the annual parade of the Lord Mayor’s Show in London. The garments, dresses and eccentric cloaks were made out of things like bubble wrap, empty bags of chips, flattened aluminum cans and coffee cups. Although her art is aesthetically pleasing, there is also a science behind it.
With the help of the resources from the Imperial College of London, the Natural History Museum, and the British Geological Survey, Burke identified the chemical elements used in the creation of the different food packaging that she collected. Understanding the chemical buildup of the products she used — such as bottles, snack bags and aluminum cans — allows them to be recycled properly. Burke wanted to bring attention to the consumption rate in London as well as the insufficiency of output from the Recycling and Waste Management in London.
According to Dean Wilshere, a writer for en-form, a UK charity that provides information on the environment, the UK comes in 16th place in comparison to all the other countries. South Korea comes in second place with a recycling rate of 56.5% and Slovenia third with a rate of 51.5%. As of 2019, the London recycling rate is 33%, shockingly low in comparison to nearby European countries like Italy with 51.3% and Germany with 66.7%. The output in London is low in comparison because of low access to storage space for waste, high-density housing, and lack of clearly tailored communication.
It’s easy to look over the amount of waste a city produces when it’s constantly being hidden from the public eye. Out of sight out of mind, right? The city of London has street cleaners in place that work day and night to make sure the city looks presentable. Workers use different collection devices as well as cleaning vehicles to maintain the city. It’s important to note that just because the city may look its best doesn’t mean that the waste management is efficient. Since London is a very large city with millions of inhabitants, the annual consumption is steadily increasing. This leads to an increase in waste produced yearly. Soon enough there will be nowhere for the waste to go but out on the roads.
Aínne Burke isn’t the only local artist who focuses on demonstrating the distinctive relationship between art and recycling. In her own unique way, artist Jane Perkins, 64, uses recycled materials as her main art medium to exemplify how materials that have been “preloved” still have a chance to be used again.
While Perkins was doing research on her degree thesis, “Art from Recycled Materials,” she discovered unconventional religious festival headdresses from Ecuador that were decorated with random objects found in the streets of cities and trash bins. On these pieces, there were items such as old dolls, light bulbs, coins, old phone batteries, and even shells. She drew inspiration from these detailed works of art and began to work on her own pieces of “rubbish art,” as she calls it. For her final year project, she made a collection of hand-stitched brooches garnished with a variety of small pieces of rubbish she found in London. She used things like pins, small earrings, pieces of plastic, buttons, really anything she found that could be utilized.
After her brooches, Perkins changed paths and began to work on larger pieces. This is where her series called “Plastic Classics” was born. She took well-known pieces like the “Mona Lisa” and “The Girl with a Pearl Earring” and completely transformed them into memorable pieces of art.
“Through my art, rubbish is given another life, another purpose,” Perkins explained. “It makes me feel as if my art has more than just superficial meaning, it has a deep message that needs to be spread,” Perkins added in an interview. From a distance, Perkins’ art looks nothing short of normal, just another painting of another famous art work. However, when they get closer, the audience is left breathless.
Perkins’ art also brings awareness to London’s insufficiency in recycling. Since London struggles to perform under the pressure of its high population, a lot of rubbish is misplaced or left on the streets. All the different types of miscellaneous pieces of trash, if not recycled properly, will end up polluting the local London landscape.
“I started by using things I found on the streets and then from there I started to ask friends and family for their trash,” Perkins said. As her pieces became more elaborate, they required more pieces, more shading, and more depth. To achieve the look she wanted she had to branch out and look for other ways to find the “colourful things” she needed.
Perkins mentioned that not all her materials were from the London trash, a good majority was actually from places like local flea markets and second-hand stores. When people think of recycling or reusing, those locations aren’t the first to come to mind, but in reality, those are the easiest places for consumers to shop ethically. Since the majority of these products are secondhand or as Perkins says “pre-loved,” purchasing them keeps them out of landfills or from polluting the local landscape.
