What a Dump...

For this second project, I constructed three panels out of cardboard and newspaper, with stick supports to secure them in the dumpster. I left the shape of the newspaper intact and stained it with coffee to create the illusion of soiled newsprint emerging somewhat organically from the trash. In choosing the form, I opted for a less defined and more figurative image, hoping to draw attention to the image as art and not its actual content. In contrast to the first project, I tried to make this project more site-specific on multiple levels. Rather than using paint, I pared the materials down to mostly trash with minimal use of chalk and charcoal. Additionally, the project is site-specific in a more obvious sense, with the figure literally resting on the heaped trash bags. The dumpster proved a far better site than the original trash can in that the wide expanse of trash creates a sort of landscape for the figure. The full dumpster also offers a literal juxtaposition of art and trash, playing on the ambiguities between them, something I was not able to achieve with the emptier trash can in Project 1. I was limited in terms of picking a dumpster with relevant surrounding structures due the fact that many of Albuquerque's dumpsters are enclosed, locked or not open to public dumping. I eventually settled with one on campus, behind Castetter and, interestingly enough, adjacent to the Daily Lobo building.