One man's garbage
I have been recycling spraycans for many years now. I was attracted to the idea of the project before I was drawn into the art of making them. Something that is thrown away and put to a new purpose. Straightforward, and I loved the idea!
Long ago I was commissioned to make an artistic piece for a stretch of the docks along the river Schelde in Antwerp. A portion of the docks were being renovated. In between two new sections there was a parking area and a slope of asphalt that led up to the new walkway. That slope turned out to be 660 square meters. Ideas for this spot came quickly, and on paper this wouldn't be a problem. However, the challenge lay in working with the sloping area. For this, I found a professional graffiti artist with experience and completed the project with him.
I wanted to make love letters to the city, to the neighborhood, and to the people of that neighborhood. There were three pieces. The first was of the small neighborhood of Sint-Andries, located in the shadow of the large city. The second piece was of the neighborhood at street level, as one would experience it while walking through the area. The third piece focused on an elderly couple (representing my grandparents) by the river communicating their love for one another in Antwerps, the city’s dialect. "Ik zie A geire." I love you. The "A" serves two purposes in this sentence. It indicates you and also serves as the letter used on the logo of the city. It can be used in communicating to a person as well as to the city.
Around each of these love letters there was space for other love letters. Locals would write poetry expressing what they love about the city, about the neighborhood, and about each other. Chalk was also present. Anyone passing by could use the chalk to write their own line. They could express what they love and who they loved, with no limitations. Once it rained, the chalk would be washed away and the slope would become a clean slate.
The illustration was only planned to stay there for six months, but then Covid happened, and it stayed there for two and a half years.
When the project was finished, I was looking at a pile of empty spray cans, wondering what to do with them. It felt wrong to throw away all this metal, and I love how a spraycan looks... So I started to think if I could do something with it so I could give this object a second life. I saw people drawing on them. I thought I could do that, when it was finished, I was looking at a fun can, but it felt off. I was comparing it in my head to a figurine grandparents would collect but then a modern-day version of it. So I wasn't convinced I wanted it to have an actual function again and not just be a death, dull object.
So I started to open one. The first time was a disaster, but I won't elaborate on that. This didn't turn me off, I kept at it. Once open, the idea popped in my head: piggy bank!
The process of opening and cleaning them eventually evolved so many times, each time making it easier and cleaner. Now it had a function; I wasn't bothered if people collected them and didn't use them like intended. I knew it wasn't just another figurine on a shelf!
Recently I was working at a market, and someone came to my booth, expressing a lot of interest in the spray cans. Turns out she works for Theo. Theo creates eyewear. They have been doing so from Belgium since 1987. Sometimes quirky, often different, but always at the vanguard of eyewear design. She explained that she designs the display windows of their stores, and she would love to use my spraycans in a display at their flagship store. I knew their brand; I had owned a couple of their glasses over the years. So I loved the idea before I had even thought it through.
They only had one ask: make them colorful! As you see from the images, that wasn't a problem, as they were always my most colorful items that I made. So I made ten of them, and this would mean a different audience, a different context, and different exposure, but the same original discarded object living a second life.
The cans were now sitting next to and holding up glasses worth over 700 euros. Garbage next to luxury. Waste next to want. Somehow it fits. Not that I see my cans as waste, but when most people see an empty spray can, that is what they see.
One man's garbage is another man's treasure. A can that started its journey on a slope next to the Schelde has now moved into the city itself and ended up behind glass holding up glasses. Its history, its progress, its present. Who knows where it goes from here...
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