Trashy Art

We belong to a generation that is extremely consumerist, materialist, and greedy. It’s total garbage!  But here’s how an inspiring artist gets around it while creating breathtakingly beautiful work.

Portuguese street artist Artur Bordalo, known by the moniker Bordalo II, is showing off some bold new street art in an abandoned Lisbon warehouse. The artist, who was born in 1987, revitalizes end-of-life materials discarded by others to create his pieces. Bordalo draws attention to wastefulness by creating massive vibrant animals out of discarded plastic car parts, and other trash  – and the whimsical designs are unlike anything you’ve ever seen.

Garbage is given new life as colorful animal sculptures in Bordalo II’s solo exhibition Attero – the Latin word for ‘waste.’ The trash is locally sourced and might come from old cars, construction materials, or whatever else the artist happens to find. He often transforms the debris into animals because they are particularly vulnerable to harm from our society which too often throws items away, polluting the environment.

Attero calls us to reflect on our own consumption, according to Lara Seixo Rodrigues, founder of nonprofit arts organization Mistaker Maker, which curated Attero. She remarked “Whether on a large or small scale, his unusual sculptural creations oblige us to question and rethink our own role as actors in this static, consumerist, and self-destructive society, which exploits, often in an abusive way, the resources that nature offers us.”

Check out more of Bordalo II’s pieces on Facebook and Instagram.

Taken from inhabitat.com article by Lacy Cooke