Senior art major Kate Sampson scoured the campus garbage cans for items to construct enlarged spheres that signify not only her artistic point of view, but wasteful behavior. She will display the five massive globes she spent months creating for public view during Earth Day.
Sampson collected non-recycled trash, like coffee cups and lids, food containers, and candy wrappers, then hand-washed the items, and ultimately strung them all together.
“The piece is meant to show the rapid transition of everyday objects from essential to unwanted,” says Sampson of the project, which was funded by an Undergraduate Research Grant. “Almost every Rutgers–Camden student contributed unknowingly.”
Sampson’s faculty advisor Elizabeth Demaray, an associate professor of art at Rutgers–Camden, will be also showcasing an Earth Day art project created with the Advanced Sculpture class and the 3-Design classes. The project encourages students, faculty, staff and community members to take part in a color field, created by colorful trash planted in the ground for a rainbow effect.
According to Demaray, trash can be quite colorful and even beautiful.
“There is so much creative energy going on in Camden and these are the materials of this post-industrial landscape,” she notes of the Rutgers–Camden color field. “You really can make art out of anything. In fact, what we have most of at our disposal are these non-biodegradable items.”
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Media Contact: Ed Moorhouse
(856) 225-6759
E-mail: ejmoor@camden.rutgers.edu