Feroza Gulzar

Site Project

This project is based on the reaction of people when they are introduced to a new element in their surroundings. On an everyday level, people encounter trash but they tend to ignore it because they have become use to it. How will they react when suddenly this waste takes a new form? How will it change the surroundings? By form we mean Sculpture and by surrounding we mean that particular area where the sculpture is placed. The sculpture shows how these specific areas are affecting our society, which we tend to ignore. We noticed how people reacted.

A site can be any area you choose to present your work, in our case, we choose Abdullah Shah Ghazi and Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture as our sites. Our Material was ‘Trash’ including newspapers, wrappers, water bottles and cans as a human form.

In Abdullah Shah Ghazi, People who were not stopping where the trash in its original form was, were now noticing the trash as a new form. Our audience were the people passing by, standing and noticing. Some people were making fun of us, but they were still confused about what we were doing. It changed the surrounding in an interesting way, people were now stopping by, the area was getting attention and suddenly the surrounding of that particular area changed.

While at School, we placed our sculpture near the entrance. In this particular school as it’s an arts school the experience was different from our first site. People were not confused they were touching it, playing with it and were comfortable with its presence. It changed that particular area when people started touching the sculpture. People usually don’t stop at the entrance, but when the sculpture was placed people started noticing and stopped to look at it

Trash used to make the sculpture:

Abdullah Shah Ghazi (Parking Area):

Sculpture installed in Abdullah Shah Ghazi:

IVSAA:

The video we recorded shows the making of the sculptures and how people reacted to it at Abdullah Shah Ghazi and Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture.

 

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Feroza Gulzar

First Draft

When we think of creating new forms, the most accessible, yet ignored form is trash. The cliché is that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” but the author of that phrase probably never realised how strangely true it could turn out to be in the form of artistic recycling. In today’s world of weird and amazing art some of the most compelling and creative works have been born out of the simplest and most abundant of materials: garbage. [1]

There are millions of artists who worked with trash, and created new forms, mostly with an intention of it to be noticeable. This project was a joint effort between Farehah and me. Our Project was based on the same thought, how people react when they are introduced to a trash as a new form in their surroundings? When we drive through the road we see trash after every 3 Km, but we’ve became use to it. We thought of doing my art piece with the intention of how different classes react to it, but ended up with a different approach. The two sites we choose were Abdullah Shah Ghazi and Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture. A site, is the most important part of any project, it can be a mountain, a piece of paper, laptop or anything which a person chooses to present their work, it is the focal point of any project.

 

we started off with making a sculpture with newspaper, plastic bags and trash from dust bin; It took one day to complete the sculpture. After the sculpture was ready with a human form, we headed up to, first, Abdullah Shah Ghazi and then to IVSAA. Working with 5 different angles was a difficult task, but it also gave me more area to cover the reactions of people. In Abdullah Shah Ghazi, People who were not stopping where the trash in its original form was, were now noticing the trash as a new form. Our audience was the people passing by, standing and noticing. Some people were making fun of it, but they were still confused about what we was doing. It changed the surrounding in an interesting way, people were now stopping by, the area was getting attention and suddenly the surrounding of that particular area changed.

While at IVSAA being an arts School, the reaction was completely different. We placed the sculpture near the entrance. In this particular school as it’s an arts school the experience was different from our first site. People were not confused they were touching it, playing with it and were comfortable with its presence. It changed that particular area when people started touching the sculpture. People usually don’t stop at the entrance, but when the sculpture was placed people started noticing and stopped to look at it. The reaction instead of class difference came out to be of different areas. Our gate-keeper also comes from the class where people don’t see such thing, but because he’s the gate-keeper of an arts schools makes his experience different from a gatekeeper of a medical university or any other university which is not related to art.

The artist who inspired me is, “HA Schult” his work know as haunting ‘trash people’ have graced the streets of many of the world’s most major cities, silently open to interpretation as they travel the world and sit everywhere from the parks of New York City to the Great Wall of China. It took Schult 6 months and 30 assistants to create these strange sculptures from crushed cans, computer parts and virtually anything else he could appropriate to assemble them. What is their purpose and meaning? It is difficult to say, but they are certainly trans-cultural and intended to engage, inspire and engender reflection in those who see them and are a foil to see the reactions of different nations and groups of people.[2]

Although his work is far deeper than my work, but the idea behind it is the same.

The most important material used by HA Schult for his attacks against an impassive, and waning cultural institution is garbage. Garbage used as a material of refusal and provocation.[3]

 

[1] Dirty Art: 7 Innovative Artists Who Make Artwork from Trash

Article by Urbanist, filed under Sculpture & Craft in the Art category.

http://weburbanist.com/2008/06/04/recycled-art-from-trash

 

[2]Dirty Art: 7 Innovative Artists Who Make Artwork from Trash

Article by Urbanist, filed under Sculpture & Craft in the Art category.

http://weburbanist.com/2008/06/04/recycled-art-from-trash

 

[3] Armin Zweite, 1974

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Final Paper

Site Intervention

Feroza Gulzar

 

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”[1]

 

In Popular taste, people expect a cultivated taste in knowledge. It demands attention that is different from everyday life. When we talk about aesthetics, it subvert the process of recycling of discarded objects, which makes object itself the subject. Objects, which are not in use anymore, stir our imagination when they take a new form, and allow the viewer to connect with the art piece. When we think of creating a new form, the most accessible yet, ignored form is trash. The phrase that is commonly used “ one man’s trash is the other man’s treasure” where the author would have never realised how strangely true it will come out to be in the form when an artist recycle it. In today’s world of weird and amazing art some of the most compelling and creative works have been born out of the simplest and most abundant of materials: garbage.[2]

 

There are artists who worked with trash, and created new forms, mostly with an intention of it to be noticeable. The site intervention was a Joint effort between Farehah and me. Walking through the streets of Karachi, with trash along every step, I understood the difference between an artist and a novice; being an artist gives you the ability to see things in a different way. We see art in everything around us, when we see trash; we start to recognise it, because it comes from our everyday life. It is the food we ate, newspaper we read, and bottle we drank water from. All of these were a part of our lives, which is now garbage. This is the beauty of art of reclamation. [3] Our Project was based on the thought, that how people react when they are introduced to trash as a new form in their surroundings? And how we can use recycling to create art. We thought of doing our project with an intention to notice how different classes react to it, but ended up with a different approach. The two sites we choose were, Abdullah Shah Ghazi and Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture. A site is the most important part of any project, it can be a mountain, a piece of paper, laptop or anything, which a person chooses to present their work, and it is the focal point of any project.

 

We started off with making a sculpture with newspaper, plastic bags, plastic bottles and other trash from dust bin; It took one day to complete the sculpture. After the sculpture was ready with a human form, we headed up to, first, Abdullah Shah Ghazi and then to IVSAA. Working with 5 different angles was a difficult task, but it also gave us more area to cover the reactions. In Abdullah Shah Ghazi, we placed the sculpture in front of entrance, where the Sindh police barrier was placed. There was trash around that area; People, who were not noticing the trash in its original form, were now reacting towards the new form of trash; that is sculpture. Our audience was the people passing by, vendors, policemen, guards and visitors of the shrine. When people saw the sculpture, they started making fun of it, but beside that, they looked confuse. It changed the surrounding in an interesting way, people were now noticing the sculpture, and the area was getting attention, which made the surrounding of that particular area different from it was before.

 

While at IVSAA being an arts School, the reaction was completely different. Here we also placed the sculpture at the entrance. People were still making fun, but now in a different way, because they are fond of seeing such art pieces. This time our audience was different; they were the teachers, students, staff, guards and workers. These people were not confused, even the guards and the workers were sure about what we were doing, and that’s where our concept of class difference changed. Our gatekeeper also comes from the class where people see trash as trash, but because he’s the gatekeeper of an art school makes his experience different from any other gatekeeper not associated with art. Sculpture changed the surrounding of that area when people started touching it, playing with it and was comfortable with its presence. People usually don’t stop at the entrance, but when the sculpture was placed people stopped to look at it.

I was inspired by “HA Schult” work; know as “trash people”. Although his work is far bigger than the work we did, but the idea behind it is the same. Born in 1939 in Parchim/Germany Schult grew up in the ruins of Berlin. It took him 6 months and 30 assistants to create these strange sculptures from crushed cans, computer parts and virtually anything else he could appropriate to assemble them.[4] He travels around the world with his team in containers carrying the sculptures made up of trash, and place them in famous cities. His project is a reflection of us. Today’s Coca-Cola bottle is the Roman archeological found of tomorrow. For decades HA Schult has managed to stimulate public awareness using images he has experienced. He stages topics in public places, which are normally edged away from the public.[5] We are the people made of trash. We live in an era of trash. We produce trash and we become trash and we, the majority, are always treated like trash. By showing the people who were made into trash by history and cruelty, the spectacle of horror becomes a mirror. [6]

I agree with the statement “ One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.Lea Vergine, In her essay, “From Junk to Art,” explains how waste material was being featured from Picasso to Marcel Duchamp. We cannot claim that what they were producing was not art, yet the original intention was to underline that discarded material could be just as effective as valuable, time honoured materials in creating aesthetic works.[7] After doing this project, I’ve realised how people can interpret their outcomes towards trash, there is more to add to our environment than wasting it. This site intervention was done using a simple sculpture placed at two different sites, but the objective was to make people aware of their surrounding, to see what I see as an artist, to tell them if an artist can make an art piece out of trash than they can surely recycle it. It’s hard to create awareness, it take years, but we can at least try. By making art with trash we can make people aware of their own surrounding, and if they will start to think before they pollute the area, I think, that will be our success.

 

[1] Hector Urquhart’s introduction to 1860’s Popular Tales of the West Highlands

[2] Dirty Art: 7 Innovative Artists Who Make Artwork from Trash

Article by Urbanist, filed under Sculpture & Craft in the Art category.

http://weburbanist.com/2008/06/04/recycled-art-from-trash

[3] 2001 by Kira Stevens. Drawing 2001 by Mike Mosher

http://bad.eserver.org/issues/2001/55/stevens.html

[4] http://www.haschult.de/action/trash#content

[5] http://www.haschult.de/action/trash#content

[6] Peter Weibel, 2006

[7] Trash From Junk to Art, edited by Lea Vergine

 

 Bibliography

Whiteley, Gillian. Junk: Art and the Politics of Trash. Leicestershire: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd, n.d.

Vergine, Lea. Trash From Junk to Art. Trento, n.d.

Guven, Ferit. Madness and Death in Philosophy: Social Impacts of Sydney 2000. New York: State university of New York press, n.d.

Lewis, Dan. “One’s Trash, Another’s Treasure.” Now I know that’s half the battle (2012).

Schult, HA. HA SCHULT. <http://www.haschult.de/action/trash#content&gt;.

Stevens, Kira. “Trash Transformed into Art: Exploring the Art of Reclamation.” Bad Subjects (2011).

Robinson, Victoria. ““One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.” Graphics Blog (2010).