"Art from Detritus: Recycling with Imagination" Exhibition

Viridian Artists, Inc.

poster for "Art from Detritus: Recycling with Imagination" Exhibition

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Unlike many exhibitions about recycling, the art in this exhibit is actually made from fragments of discarded and found materials that have been creatively transformed. Not only do these artists recycle, but they are also upcycling (a process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value) by using trash as their medium of choice for their artmaking.

The "Art from Detritus” curator Vernita Nemec, who is also the Director of Viridian Artists, an artist herself and the founder of the Art from Detritus movement says, "This show instills in viewer's minds the value of recycled materials and presents ways to use trash creatively. Making art with what would have otherwise become trash is the ultimate level of upcycling and reuse, for people rarely throw away ART. And transforming trash into art, makes the valueless priceless,” says the New York City based artist/curator.

The Detritus (another word for leftovers) show was initially inspired in 1993 when N’Cognita attended her first National Recycling Coalition Conference in Nashville. Since, she has curated ‘Detritus’ exhibits in Portland, Oregon; Kansas City, Missouri; Phoenix, Arizona; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and New York City featuring the art of hundreds of artists, receiving funding and sponsorship from the Kauffman Foundation, Westinghouse, AIA, National Recycling Coalition (NRC), the Synagogue for the Arts in NYC, the Puffin Foundation and others. Catalogs from past exhibits provide a rich documentation of artists' statements and images, documenting recycling as an integral part of their creative oeuvre.

Since the beginning of time, artists have been creating art from the "detritus of life" because of the inherent beauty and accessibility of old and discarded artifacts, their spiritual significance or simply because trash was all they had available. Contemporary artists too are attracted to trash as an art medium-- for political, financial or purely aesthetic reasons. By rejecting traditional artists' materials & using society's wastes to create their art, not only do they give new meaning & value to the trash they have transformed, but they are also helping to save the environment and our planet.

Clifford Case, Founder of the National Recycling Coalition in D.C., in reference to past Detritus Exhibitions says, "The power of art is that it changes our perceptions of reality, making us see things with new eyes …because we as recyclers need this transforming power of art." Dr. Jan Beyea, former Chief Scientist at the National Audubon Society in NYC and deeply involved with recycling says, "This exhibition is an important merging of artists and environmentalists, stimulating new ways to communicate the message of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."

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