What a load of rubbish...

September 18, 2006 12:07 PM

Garbage of New York City - litter that is collected, packaged up in a neat plastic box, and then sold for $50 a pop.
posted by Orange Goblin (35 comments total)

I'd like to see some provenance, first.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:10 PM on September 18, 2006

No crack vials? I call bullshit.

Also, they need to use Sprit's 'Fresh Garbage,' as a jingle.
posted by jonmc at 12:12 PM on September 18, 2006

It's ingenious... to take advantage of people who are stupid enough to buy thiskind of garbage.

ahem... really, I'm sorry. it was only intended at the last minute.
posted by sunshinesky at 12:13 PM on September 18, 2006

if any mefites are interested but balking at the $50 price tag, i will gladly send you a whole freakin' bag of trash from various parts of manhattan, brooklyn, and very occasionally queens for the bargain price of $39.99.
posted by sonofslim at 12:15 PM on September 18, 2006

Dear art students:

This concept has already been played out, decades ago in fact. Seriously. Please stop it. There's no new ground to be found in this "commentary on commercialism by repackaging something useless and/or unpleasant and selling it to rich idiots." The continuing supply of rich idiots is no reason to counter with an equally endless supply of depressingly derivative art. Thanks!

Wuv,
P. S. Tail
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 12:23 PM on September 18, 2006 [2 favorites]

Only the lazy use Helvetica.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:28 PM on September 18, 2006

He's raised his prices--supply and demand at work, I guess.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:38 PM on September 18, 2006

Followup of PinkStainlessTail's post: Also, quit it with the fucking crucifixes. You had your two thousand years, now move on.
posted by Kickstart70 at 12:40 PM on September 18, 2006 [2 favorites]

Each box is unique and won't leak or smell.

NYC garbage without the smell? That's like a book without text.
posted by brain_drain at 12:51 PM on September 18, 2006

Or pictures. Or anything else. You know what I mean.
posted by brain_drain at 12:51 PM on September 18, 2006

I like it. I wouldn't buy it, but I like the idea. Fancy New York garbage. I dunno. I like it.

If anyone's an expert on the history of "garbage art," I'd be curious why this attempt is so lame and derivative.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:55 PM on September 18, 2006

What some people won't pay for...
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 1:07 PM on September 18, 2006

The "artist?" There is a difference between an artist and a man who picks up some garbage and puts it in a box.
posted by wigu at 1:08 PM on September 18, 2006

You could make a good case that "garbage art" began 90 years ago, with Duchamp's Fountain
posted by Iridic at 1:10 PM on September 18, 2006

mrgrimm, how about some poop art?
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:12 PM on September 18, 2006

Only the lazy use Helvetica.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:28 PM PST on September 18

Helvetica Light was ruined by European DJs and now the rest of the family is being ruined by shitty artists. Someone send them a disk with Century Gothic, Comic Sans, or Papyrus, please. >:(
posted by Optimus Chyme at 1:14 PM on September 18, 2006

Someone was selling Victorian-era trash pulled up from the Thames River-bed and arranged on a board - mostly broken pottery shards and pieces of metal. Actually very nice. Nothing wrong with selling NYC trash. Better than "San Francisco fog-in-a-can".
posted by stbalbach at 1:21 PM on September 18, 2006

If anyone's an expert on the history of "garbage art," I'd be curious why this attempt is so lame and derivative.

Well the canonical example is Manzoni's Artist's Shit, but I feel like I've seen the same basic statement made over and over again. I don't see that this adds anything new. The art's all in the concept of "I just bought a box of garbage. What does that say about our culture?" Such art no longer interests me: it's not the start of a wider set of artistic concepts or aesthetic explorations, it's not an interesting artifact separated from its concept, it doesn't break any new ground, and it doesn't demonstrate any craft that I find meaningful. I need at least one of these.

That said, my first message in this thread was snippy and I apologize for that. And on preview I see MrMoonPie beat me to the shit. And I also see wigu is here, and that dude's got way more cred to talk about art than I do.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:22 PM on September 18, 2006

On the flip side of "Proof by SCIENCE!", we have "thought-provoking ART!". Yes, thanks for more ART! I'm full up for now though.
posted by GuyZero at 1:26 PM on September 18, 2006

No crack vials? I call bullshit.

I've never seen a crack vial on the streets of NYC. I'm sure there's areas where you can find one if you look, but I'd expect much more to see a discarded little baggie from pot or coke or possibly the remnants of a joint.

if any mefites are interested but balking at the $50 price tag, i will gladly send you a whole freakin' bag of trash from various parts of manhattan, brooklyn, and very occasionally queens for the bargain price of $39.99.

For $25 + shipping I will send you bags of garbage from my exclusive apartment. You can't find this stuff on the streets!
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 1:32 PM on September 18, 2006

Thanks, PinkStainlessTail. Seriously. Let the garbage thing go.
posted by agregoli at 1:33 PM on September 18, 2006

I've never seen a crack vial on the streets of NYC.

I haven't seen one since the early nineties. But it was too hard to resist.
posted by jonmc at 1:34 PM on September 18, 2006

For the Entrepeneurs in this thread, the box is a half sized beanie baby box. I purchased a bunch (not for beanie babies, I'm much too insane for something boring like that) for around $1.50 after shipping. More would have yielded a bigger discount.

I often think the reason I'm not rich is that I would never in a billion years expect people to pay for the things that someone else is getting rich off. If only I'd get past the "who'd pay for something that dumb" I could be rich too.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 1:35 PM on September 18, 2006

i wish they'd sell tom cruise's feces. I would buy that.
posted by obeygiant at 1:40 PM on September 18, 2006

If you find a used condom you win the jackpot.

It would be kind of cool if he filled the cubes with acrylic, rather then simply selling a sealed box.
posted by delmoi at 2:20 PM on September 18, 2006

I'd be curious why this attempt is so lame and derivative.
Well, just look at the incredible load of garbage from Washington that people have been buying over the past five years.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:41 PM on September 18, 2006

This thread reminds me of the artists that take a residency at San Francisco Recycling & Disposal, Inc. which is just a fancy name for the dump. The gallery openings are fantastic and most of the work is far more interesting to look at than garbage in cube
posted by Holy foxy moxie batman! at 2:59 PM on September 18, 2006

The "artist?" There is a difference between an artist and a man who picks up some garbage and puts it in a box.
posted by wigu at 3:08 PM CST on September 18 [+] [!]

I like you.
posted by Ynoxas at 3:08 PM on September 18, 2006

I'd like to see some proof that anybody has actually bought these, apart from a little map that he threw together. The biggest step in commodifying your art is making people think it's popular.
posted by one_bean at 3:31 PM on September 18, 2006

This thread reminds me of the artists that take a residency at San Francisco Recycling & Disposal, Inc. which is just a fancy name for the dump. The gallery openings are fantastic and most of the work is far more interesting to look at than garbage in cube

Key word there is "most," but I generally agree. I really liked Hector Dio Mendoza's White Tree II at the SF State Eco show last fall.
posted by mrgrimm at 3:49 PM on September 18, 2006

A friend of mine gave me one of these boxes two or three years ago. I've still got it somewhere, but it's a mark of my indifference that I can't recall where it is. The contents are deeply uninteresting, as is the concept. I thought he'd snagged a bunch for $10 each or something, which would make them novelties. But $50?
posted by Hogshead at 4:12 PM on September 18, 2006

This is the kind of heartwarming story that makes me want to go into marketing.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 5:02 PM on September 18, 2006

people pay for free shit then upload photos of it on the internets. there are clearly plenty of people with both too much money and too much time on their hands. trash in a box is not so strange.
posted by snofoam at 8:03 PM on September 18, 2006

The continuing supply of rich idiots is no reason to counter with an equally endless supply of depressingly derivative art.

How else are the supposed to pay rent? buy suitcases of cheap beer?
posted by loquacious at 12:57 AM on September 19, 2006

Hey, it's not just garbage. It's *New York City* garbage, and labeled as such.

Some people need to get over themselves.
posted by dydecker at 1:10 AM on September 19, 2006