NYAB Event - Howard Better “Everything You Always Wanted”

Howard Better “Everything You Always Wanted”

Soapbox Gallery

This event has ended.

Howard Better creates sculptures using recycled cans of various sizes. These colorful constructions carry images cut out of magazines and newspapers, echoing the missing can labels.

This is a sculpture project using recycled cans of various sizes. I replaced the labels with collages composed of images from magazines and catalogs. The cans and the images glued on to them are all recycled from local garbage. At this point I have created about a thousand of these 3-D collages. The original labels are gone, but the idea of labels remains. Although the cans are actually empty, one considers what the contents might be. Each can is unique, and is best experienced by watching them spin so that they can be seen from all sides. - Howard Better

For many years Better has worked with film and video, exploring imagery which unfolds in time. Images echo and reinforce other images as the cans spin. New combinations are being continuously created. There are themes and patterns running through the series. The fact that there are so many cans highlights the contrast between mass-production and the individuality of each can. One is reminded of cans of food being displayed in the window of a grocery store. (As a teenager, Better stocked shelves at KEY FOOD.)