Imagine what it's like being a career artist -- spending one's waking hours searching for inspiration while fighting vague detachment with interminable boozing. The array of wake-uppable places ranges from the bed/bathtub to the local friendly bar-dumpster.
However, when these members of the Dumpster Divers art collective revel in waste, they're not just looking for dinner -- they're advancing their careers. Indeed, they transform refuse into beautiful art.
The collective was founded in 1990 in order to promote the reuse and revitalization of elements of the city that have been cast aside and forgotten. The show is located in the Sedgwick Cultural Center in the historic Mount Airy part of Northwest Philly and features the work of over 25 divers, including Neil Benson and Leo Sewell. The former fashions jewelry from scrapped typewriters, while the latter prefers to sculpt collages from random street objects. The exhibit offers a lot for visitors, who can meet with the various artists or choose to indulge in the lectures, slide shows and demonstrations that supplement the art.
It is hard to ignore the fact that all this beauty comes from the sheer prodigality of our capitalistic-Mickey-Mouse society. Perhaps the point here is not just to display the literal transformation of trash into beauty, but to provide commentary on the way people overlook and throw away so much in their everyday lives.
Or, more shallowly, perhaps the point is that in providing shelter, food and work material, dumpsters are an artist's best friend.
