Yellow brick road, minus the bricks

September 16, 2018 1:37 PM

Alejandro Durán created an art installation on the Mexican shoreline using mountains of trash.
posted by queen anne's remorse (6 comments total)

Oh, neat! Rayo is part of Durán's "Washed Up" series. From the FPP:

After documentation, he removes the trash and stores it for future projects and community work...

Durán: The piece is comprised solely of plastic items that I found washed ashore in Sian Ka’an, Mexico’s largest federally protected reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When I first visited the area in 2010, I was blown away not just by its beauty, but also by the amount of trash that I found washed up along its coast. Over the course of working on the project, I have found products from 60 countries and territories, from six continents, all washed up on this Mexican coastline.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:19 PM on September 16, 2018

It's like the antithesis of Andy Goldsworthy. Or Patrick Doherty. I love pieces that are done in nature like this.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 4:28 PM on September 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Along the same lines: this whale in Bruges
posted by exogenous at 4:36 PM on September 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

exogenous, that whale's by STUDIOKCA, and Durán's affiliated with them.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:09 PM on September 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of the Brazilian documentary Waste Land which I very highly recommend.

Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of "catadores": self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz's initial objective was to "paint" the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives.

posted by Slarty Bartfast at 5:19 PM on September 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

He should build a wall of trash along the border with the US.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:26 PM on September 16, 2018 [1 favorite]