Imitation platters of seafood and confectionery made out of ocean-borne trash at the “Future Kitchen” art show in Hualien are a call to environmental action, their creators said on Friday last week.
Using trash picked up from beaches, artists with One, One & One Studio crafted vivid mock-ups of food, which are on display at the Decryption Room, a Hualien City-based gallery, bar and teahouse.
A sashimi dish was created from discarded lures, hairbrushes were arranged to look like the shell of a sea urchin, and fishing lines formed kelp and stringy radish.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
Studio member A-sian (阿賢), a photographer, said the group visited Cisingtan Beach (七星潭) in Hualien’s Sincheng Township (新城) in 2017 and they were struck by the natural beauty of area, but also by the quantity of trash.
The trip turned into a two-month stay, during which they painstakingly cleaned the beach, A-sian said, adding that they realized afterward that the heap of trash could be material for “something cool.”
Most of the trash was from drifting ocean trash that traveled untold distances before returning the shores, he said.
Photo: Chen Yu-jui, Taipei Times
“As fish eat plastic waste, we humans who eat fish are also consuming the trash the fish ate,” he said.
The arrangement of the exhibition space aims to create a jarring visual experience, One, One & One Studio proprietor Liao Hsiu-po (廖脩博) said, adding that people have mistaken the gallery for a normal restaurant on several occasions.
Craftsman and recycling advocate Chen Chung-chin (陳忠清) said that most things people throw away can be reassembled into functional household objects.
Chen has spent decades proving that assertion by refashioning discarded items, which are offered for sale at the Art of Sustainable Resources Workshop in New Taipei City’s Lujhou District (蘆洲).
At the workshop, benches are made from bolted-together bicycle rims, with a seat created from a barrel lid and bottle caps, while tires are cut into potted plant hangers, and bottles and jars are turned into lamp fixtures, he said.
The workshop also makes toy windmills from DVDs and tiny houses from cardboard boxes, he said, adding that he began making them as gifts for his grandchildren.
Chen, who was once a village warden, said his decades-long career of crafting recyclables was launched while he was in office, which coincided with a government drive to promote recycling.
From the experience of organizing village volunteers to do environmental protection work, he realized that most of the materials they came across could be more efficiently recycled if worked into useful objects, Chen said.
The Luzhou Environmental Conservation Association and its arts and crafts branch — the workshop, which was previously called Second Life Workshop — was the culmination of that experience, he said.
Now living in semi-retirement, Chen still hosts seminars and brainstorms new projects with association volunteers, he said.
“If things can still be used, they should not be wasted, so we can leave resources to our children,” he said. “Before a thing is thrown away, we should take a second look and think about what it can be remade into.”
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