Doing some research for the “old news, still good” department, I came across the Atlantic garbage patch story again. But wait, there’s more! Look here to see all five known gyres. Today’s find is this trashpicking blog I came across, The Repurpose-Driven Life. I filed it under “shopping.”

I gotta say that trashpicking only rocks if you have the luxury of doing it for fun, not when your life depends on it. Then it pretty much sucks. Go check out everydaytrash.com for a juicy link on Agbogbloshie . . .

Rolando Politi went to Copenhagen this summer for cap activism.

Wow, sometimes it’s good to check out what’s going on outside my head. Look what I found today:

It’s part of the Plastiki project…  recently arrived in Sydney. Click here for an entertaining critique.

King Leopold II of Belgium was a greedy and cruel colonial rapist – fuck him. I say take down all his statues. But Brussels knitta-gang “Tricot Trottoir” knit a string of plastic hands to place around his statue behind the Royal Palace to commemorate the atrocities of the colonial period. Atrocities like this: “Villages who failed to meet the rubber collection quotas were required to pay the remaining amount in cut hands, where each hand would prove a kill.” The Democratic Republic of Congo won independence from Belgian rule on June 30, 1960, and soon-to-be-assassinated Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba gave a kick-ass speech to mark the occasion. Oh, but back to plastic: love the hood-mask this plastiekfabrique girl’s wearing!

I’ll be in Copenhagen Saturday December 12 to Wednesday the 16th… fun!

Rolando Politi did it again…

In his own words:

Dearest Yanbukis from all over but especially the ones outside NYC and the nomads on the road who could not be present at the closing of this cycle of WASTE…..

It was a time to rejoice and celebrate the END OF THIS DECADE OF WASTE…..the “zeros”  as we look forward to a more exciting although faster paced and unpredictable decade, the “teens”.

ANUKI, master of prophecies was correct at the dawn of the 21st century predicting unprecedented destruction and waste thru the decade. Now he predicts the renaissance of the “teens” whereby we will witness not one not two but three suns (green) the “teen” dawns will sparkle over water at the rise of three green suns marking the beginning of each new day…

Possibly not a metaphor for a greener world but a real possibility as MOTHER NATURE has a way of inventing its own reality, a reality which humans have no way of logically getting to it…

HAPPY CONTINUING SUMMER

Recycle  and  Pray

I’m creating a video montage for next year’s traveling trash expo VISIBLE TRASH – ART INTO ACTION and need your clip. Film yourself (or have someone film you) holding or showing or standing by whatever you’d call TRASH, and say the word TRASH. That’s it, just that one word. Here’s mine, a 2-second clip. I need yours in as high a resolution as you can send. You’ll be mentioned in the credits and will get a copy of the DVD when it comes out. Pass it on!

Send clips to shivita@mac.com – by June 15th would be good.

Yay for the colorful people! Yanbuki Rolando Politi did a solo show in 1991 called Bye Bye Throwaway Society, and another in 1993 called Packaging Inferno. In April he’ll be doing The End of Waste World as part of the 13 Days of Waste market, to be held at the Secret Project Robot space in Williamsburg.

Oops: this just in: THE END OF WASTE has been postponed due to “logistical and scheduling reasons at the current venue.” Politi goes on to say that “it will be rescheduled as soon as a suitable venue for staging THE SUPERMARKET OF WASTE is located and secured. Ideally this would be an empty store of no more than 1000 square feet, a raw loft with cooking facilities or any location that can be transformed.” The search is on, space needed for 13 days only.

This was the original announcement:

“Dear Yanbuki friends and partners in trash adoration: the 13 days will be full of surprises and will inspire many yanbukis, especially the new ones to this wonderful world of trash, as these so-called crisis times have forced many people to take a good look at what they consume. The whole spirit of the exhibit will be on the positive and on the opportunities we now have to make a radical cultural switch and stop ignoring all those invisible people living off garbage around the world.” – Rolando Politi

Water first: this piece (WaterLily) is by Judith Selby Lang, who also took the gorgeous photo. It’s for Art at the Cheese Factory, in San Francisco.

As for food, here’s a good piece about the waste stream from a blog I follow, Cricket Bread. It’s not that I’m lazy and can’t be bothered writing original stories, but damn, there’s way too much information out there anyway, so follow the linx. Besides, I just spent a few months coming up with original content for my new magazine, Fingerpainting on Mars. Printed copies should be delivered today, and distribution starts Monday.

Researching trash, water and the North Pacific Gyre led me to Pam Longobardi, artist in residence for the Blue Ocean Institute. She has a long list of other accomplishments as well, and will be a participant in next year’s traveling expo, Visible Trash – Art into Action. The installation shown here is “Ghosts of Tears” (1997); mutant artifacts from globalized consumer society are at driftwebs.com.