It's Just Easier To Throw It Away (2008), installation.
A commissioned installation for the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Sustainability Fair held on 18th April 2008. The installation was executed in the Portsmouth Public Library.
from the installation text:
Our modern society thrives on disposable items. Everyday we use some kind of item that we will not keep forever. Sometimes the item is used in less than 5 seconds and we’re done with it. Sometimes we hang on to something, hoping it will come in handy someday. Our personal space is at a premium and we just don’t have the room to keep a lot of things. You can try to sell a lot of your unwanted items at a yard sale or donate them to a thrift shop or charity but sometimes people don’t buy them or the thrift shop or charity won’t take them. If an item is broken, torn or worn out you could even attempt to fix it, which definitely becomes low priority compared to other matters in our lives. It’s at these points in time that most people will say, “It’s just easier to throw it away”. With items that are inherently disposable it’s a given that we will almost immediately throw it out. This installation aims to highlight a lot of these kinds of items in a controlled chaotic manner. Most of the items are virtually unrecyclable in the seacoast New Hampshire area (as well as most of the country). Certain items are recyclable if you are able to find out how to do so, which can take a lot of work and is definitely a lot harder than throwing something away. Some items are more representative of our worldwide consumption of things in disposable packaging or our need to replace the old with the new. All items in this installation were acquired or found during the course of several years. Many were acquired while traveling or ‘gifts’ from other people’s travels (I generally recruit people to bring me trash from other nations when the opportunity is there and I collect trash while I travel. I also frequent many ethnic markets as well). Most of the items were gathered from around the Seacoast area as well as my own collection of random items saved from the trash worldwide (often times pulled directly out of it).
A commissioned installation for the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Sustainability Fair held on 18th April 2008. The installation was executed in the Portsmouth Public Library.
from the installation text:
Our modern society thrives on disposable items. Everyday we use some kind of item that we will not keep forever. Sometimes the item is used in less than 5 seconds and we’re done with it. Sometimes we hang on to something, hoping it will come in handy someday. Our personal space is at a premium and we just don’t have the room to keep a lot of things. You can try to sell a lot of your unwanted items at a yard sale or donate them to a thrift shop or charity but sometimes people don’t buy them or the thrift shop or charity won’t take them. If an item is broken, torn or worn out you could even attempt to fix it, which definitely becomes low priority compared to other matters in our lives. It’s at these points in time that most people will say, “It’s just easier to throw it away”. With items that are inherently disposable it’s a given that we will almost immediately throw it out. This installation aims to highlight a lot of these kinds of items in a controlled chaotic manner. Most of the items are virtually unrecyclable in the seacoast New Hampshire area (as well as most of the country). Certain items are recyclable if you are able to find out how to do so, which can take a lot of work and is definitely a lot harder than throwing something away. Some items are more representative of our worldwide consumption of things in disposable packaging or our need to replace the old with the new. All items in this installation were acquired or found during the course of several years. Many were acquired while traveling or ‘gifts’ from other people’s travels (I generally recruit people to bring me trash from other nations when the opportunity is there and I collect trash while I travel. I also frequent many ethnic markets as well). Most of the items were gathered from around the Seacoast area as well as my own collection of random items saved from the trash worldwide (often times pulled directly out of it).
