Art for Earth’s Sake
We’re green with civic envy. With Earth Day coming up on April 22, now is the perfect time for Sacramento to follow the lead of those around the world creating public art from recycled materials.
The Idea
In December, renowned urbanist Brent Toderian posted a photo on social media of a larger-than-life, cube-shaped version of the Lite-Brite toy in a park just outside of Vancouver. But in this case, the colorful plastic pegs traditionally used to create words or a design were instead standard plastic water bottles that had been filled with colored water. A light placed inside the handcrafted box illuminated them in spectacular fashion.
“Watch how a simple idea can add a lot of life to a [public space],” Toderian wrote. He observed that the structure—part of a free annual festival called the Lights at Lafarge—was “drawing a big crowd” and ended by saying it was such a people magnet that he and his wife “had to drag our kids away!”
Wendy Wiederick—the park infrastructure manager for the city of Coquitlam, where the popular event takes place—says the piece was originally built in 2015 and uses almost exclusively found objects collected by the park’s staff and volunteers, including approximately 600 plastic bottles that had been disposed of by parkgoers. She adds that the most recent winter festival—which featured other light installations made from repurposed trash and recyclables—drew over 50,000 visitors over a single weekend.
Another example of upcycled art turned up in 2020 in Spain, where 3,000 aluminum cans were fastened together to create a canvas for a massive, pixelated mural during a contemporary art fair. The piece was part of the ongoing Pixelata project, which aims “to raise awareness of recycling and the circular economy through art.” The fair also hosted a moderated roundtable entitled “In Trash We Trust: Trash Transmuted into Art.”
Why not create a category for upcycled murals at Sacramento’s own Wide Open Walls art festival? (This year’s mural fest will be held May 16–26.) And we don’t have to stop there. City officials should also commission freestanding works of public art made entirely from recycled materials to attract people to downtown Sacramento and other areas still recovering from the economic impacts of the pandemic.
The Players
David Sobon, the founder and producer of Wide Open Walls, could add the aforementioned category to the annual mural festival. And the city of Sacramento’s Office of Arts and Culture could spearhead efforts to install eco-forward public art on the grassy median of Capitol Mall and other spots around town in need of more foot traffic.
The Bottom Line
In terms of economics, the beauty of upcycled art is that materials are largely free, found in parks or along the riverfront or elsewhere. So the only real cost is paying the local artists to help transform our region’s trash into regional treasures. In our opinion, any work of art that combines socially conscious actions with civic beautification is an instant masterpiece.
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