Trash Art! A NYC treasure!

When I started to write this blog entry - I totally thought I was going to write about garbage pick-up in New York City.  (I hear rumors that it is pretty smelly up there, I guess I'll find out when I return to the big city tomorrow.)  However, when one googles "NYC garbage" the very first site that pops up is www.nycgarbage.com  I clicked on the link expecting to find a very detailed history of the solid waste authority of the city, but instead found a very unique visual artist who actually makes art out of trash.  Literally.  He walks around New York, finds trash, and makes these really beautiful interesting cubes, capturing a moment, the moment someone discarded something for some reason.  As a tour guide, I am always trying to frame the city in different light. I personally tend to frame the city as an artist.  I occasionally get paid to sing dance and act, and I find the impact that artists of all kinds have had on the city to be the most interesting impacts.  When I read the news, news about the actors unions, hottest shows, performers visiting, auditions, symbolism of statues, etc…is what sticks out.  REITs do not.  But if I were to give a tour to a group of investors, I would have to try and frame the city from that point of view.  I once gave a food tour to the president of Pepperidge Farms.  I had to frame the tour in terms of tastes - someone who is always looking for new tastes, what tastes are unique to New York?  The village?  Harlem?  etc…  What this "trash artist" does is frames the story of the city out of trash and it is eerily and humorously beautiful.  (He is also a fabulous visual artist - so he frames the city as an artist too!)

Now, I do not believe he set out to "frame the story of the city."  According to the website the idea was born out of argument about whether or not the packaging of a product is important.  He set out to prove that if you package anything correctly people will buy it - even if it is trash - literally.  In many ways though, he is not packaging trash - he is packaging moments.  New York is dirty.  New York is smelly. New York is bustling and you leave sunglasses behind or can't find a trash can so you throw your subway card on the ground.  You drop photographs, throw mardi gras beads, toss ton of confetti, miss the trash can when throwing out your latte that allowed you to start your day.  The moment before these items were "trashed" they were treasures.  Something worth some amount of money or sentimental value to someone.  (You see this is why I'm a border line hoarder - ask my roommate.)  What this artist, Justin Gignac , does is takes these ex-treasures and turns them into beautiful art.  And when you look at his cubes - filled with an old pinkberry frozen yogurt cup and diet coke bottle you don't think "what trash" - you think - I love pinkberry and remember that moment in NYC when I sat in Riverside Park with my friend Phil and ate pinkberry covered with extra mochi before my contemporary dance class and that diet coke my mom always drinks at dinner when she comes to visit.  He captures the most intimate, most memorable, and most malleable memories in his cubes. I personally think he is a New York treasure, and you should certainly check out his site and his work!