BIO:
Julietta Singh is the author of The Breaks (forthcoming, Coffee House Press, 2021), No Archive Will Restore You (Punctum Books, 2018), and Unthinking Mastery: Dehumanism and Decolonial Entanglements (Duke UP, 2018). She teaches in English and Gender Studies at the University of Richmond.
Responses:
Alyana J.
Since having to wear mask, I realized I don’t have to think about my facial expressions, so I decided to record my facial expressions, specifically at home just because I truly don’t care what face expressions I make since there is no one around, I decided to just record/ draw little doodles of my face gestures which turned into a habit of me writing down/ documenting how I feel every evening, it has become a way of me just “letting go” and being more in-tune with myself and emotions.
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Douglas Bailey
“The Birds” represent many things. the plague doctors of old the current pandemic. and the birds that ask questions are a reflection of the hand-blown glass birds back in the '80s that would constantly dip their heads in the water. as a novelty. here that is echoed by the actions of asking questions. The ceremony involved echos the question answer responses given at secret societies from the masons to eastern star, to the Grove in northern California, and many cults that have developed out of those groups. That type of ritual was turned on its head, to create a modern situation of current dysphoria.
My use of the horror motif in the film relates to the strife and the political horror in the streets and on the media today. Our day-to-day continued insanity of fueled and ginned up hate and division. although I was making art, media can twist this as violence which is what has been going on for quite some time. so to mimic this I filmed the making of art, a thoughtful practice to deliberately being misrepresented as violence, and the words of thoughtful practice and kind ritual to be that of something that seeps gloom and doom or that of creepy, further the discomfort of viewing. I must state that the saying that I have included in the ceremony has been my long-standing philosophy in both my blacksmithing practice of recycled material. my offering free karate lessons to inner-city kids paired my 26 years of working with special ed. My statement remains the same. all things with imagination time care and effort can become something new and beautiful. so that simplistic bird feeder may look, it still feeds many birds today as it still hangs in my lemon tree. and will become a school art project for a k-8 school.
Hayden W.
This is a response to Julietta Singh’s provocation, asking me to document my typically discarded items and to consider them in a new light.
Coffee Filter with Used Grounds.
Every morning my day starts with coffee. I have a bad habit of using filters for only a single cup of coffee, which is quite wasteful. An ulterior method would be to get a reusable filter, or a coffee maker designed for single cup production. Upon reflection, I think of what a room filled with every filter I’ve ever used would look like, if there’d be any room to breath. I also consider the coffee grounds, the husk of what flavorful essence the hot water forced out. To this end, I also consider the coffee. I think about how I drink cup after cup, rarely stopping to savor. I also recall an old biology report I did on coffee. Despite its health benefits, coffee farming typically ravages the environment. The best kind of coffee to buy are the brands that are “shade grown”, because forested areas are not chopped down to increase coffee bean production. Coffee bean plants typically grow in the shade, naturally.On top of researching how to properly recycle coffee filters, I found this link on several ways to reuse the old coffee grounds.
Plastic Toothpicks.
They’re the kind of ones that have little frayed ends that go between the teeth really well. I use like two a day. They’re small, but they surely add up in landfills and the like. I should switch to wooden ones, but they do not get between the teeth properly. I suppose overall, floss is the most environmentally friendly thing. I researched many options for biodegradable floss, so that’s something to think about. Would it be possible to wash a plastic toothpick for repeated use?
Orange Peel.
This one provides an opportunity for reflection on survival and nature. The orange exists as sustenance for me and I peel off the skin like it's a candy wrapper. But that wrapper exists to protect the orange, so that it can survive and spread its seeds. So in a way, the orange is a sacrifice of a lesser being, just like eating meat. The only difference is that the orange plant never felt any pain when it was harvested. I would like a world where it was guaranteed an animal would never have to suffer for me to eat it.It almost seems like a waste to throw something away so bright and vibrant. I could start putting them in some drinking water to soak in orange flavoring.
Disinfectant Wipes.
Terrible for the environment, but so convenient for cleaning. To add to the guilt of using them, I often use paper towels to dry off the residue. I clean less than normal people, but it's no excuse. These are some of the two worst offenders of the landfill crisis. I will use this reflection to consciously make an effort to clean via reusable methods.
Pizza Box.
Such a waste of advertising. Not to mention, the pizza itself still has a plastic wrapping and a cardboard base. When will mankind learn to consider these types of problems? One single wrapper is all you need for a stiff, frozen pizza. It doesn’t even need to be in color, just the brand name, health info, and instructions. I do recycle my cardboard, so I can take some credit for that.I will also take a second to appreciate the artists that create such colorful and attractive boxes for these soulless corporations to make their product. Even though that artist is selling their talents in a problematic way, there's still passion behind the design.
To be honest, most other items on my daily list of trash are mostly just variations of these kinds of items. What highlighting these few have done is provided a moment to reflect on all the waste I produce and whether or not I do enough (I don’t).To complete the provocation, I’ve decided to utilize the old coffee grounds to create a small piece of art, to help appreciate the gratuitous amounts of coffee I drink every year.
In my piece, which I’ve decided to leave untitled, was a spur of the moment gestural painting. Acrylic paint, raw umber, was combined with water and used coffee grounds to create a gritty, earthy paste. I spread this mixture over unprimed canvas, taped to a board for security. Having just drunk a cup of coffee, I used my energetic brush strokes to frantically create a mass near the center of the canvas and moved outward. The outcome was a static looking blob that seemed to be moving in every direction, as if the coffee grounds were atoms colliding at unfathomable speeds. I noticed that the work could resemble a meteorite, perhaps representing planet Earth's speedy path towards doom.The work does have an urgency to it, possibly brought on by the coffee running through my veins. I think it represents the masses of trash building up in our canvas that we call Earth.
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Emily P.
I choose to waste my time apologizing and caring for others, all while I harm myself without apology. My makeup bag does not have makeup, but the things I use and abuse daily to keep me beautiful in the eyes of those around me. Moisturizer to keep my skin silky smooth, a disposable vape to sustain the oral fixation I have developed from stress, and the xanax prescription I have had since I was fifteen years old to hide the symptoms of my mental illness. I am perceived as put together, yet I flush away pills into my bloodstream. I fill my lungs with smoke. A way of maintaining myself that will surely harm me, the way others do to me, but I find solace in knowing that this harm is my choice. The containers empty day by day, as my needs for consumption scream internally and externally. I honor this waste, for it is the gasoline in my body, as though I am nothing more than a vehicle. I will forever be stuck in the cycle of being a consumer.
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Figure 1. “Sorry mom”
Katie H.
While walking through the park I noticed a landscaper trimming trees and bushes and blowing the stray leaves away with the leaf blower. I collected some of the leaves and sticks and weaved them together with som fibers. I took the artwork back to the same park and hung the weaving on a tree in front of a flat rock to use as a meditation focal point.
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Oriana G.
Every other week my partner buys me a bouquet of flowers, typically roses. We both enjoy keeping fresh flowers in the apartment and at times will have multiple different bouquets. I typically just wait until the flowers have lived their course and dispose of them, but I decided to cleanse some petals as they were slightly drying. After being sanitized, they were laid out on a paper towel in direct sunlight to air dry.
After a couple of weeks of collecting, cleansing, and drying, I then collected all the necessary ingredients for a rose petal sugar scrub. I am a resourceful and sustainable queen, so I gathered a reusable jar, coconut oil, sugar (in the Smuckers jar), lavender oil, and of course my rose petals. I cleansed the jar with a “Compassion” incense while setting my intentions by repeating the mantra “I love myself. I am enough. I have everything I need.” I continued to repeat the mantra while crushing up the petals, adding in oils, and mixing in the sugar.
At the end of my ritual, I expressed my gratitude to all my ingredients and where they came from. I thanked the roses for their beauty and antioxidants. I thanked the sugar for its sweetness and exfoliating texture. I thanked the coconut oil for its moisture and prosperity. I thanked the lavender for its soothing element and grace. Now I must thank Julietta Singh for the provocation. Thank you!
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Mindi R.
I grabbed brown paper grocery bags from our continually growing stack, an unwanted product of grocery shopping during the pandemic. I tear off any handles and cut the bags apart, transforming them into long strips.
Then using thinned acrylic paints, I paint each side, sometimes swirling colors in a limited palette, sometimes trying spray paint. This time, I used 6 bags.
When the first sides dry I flip them and paint the other sides.
This process is meditative. It allows reflection on the materials involved, the bag itself, it’s purposes in all its incantations and embodiments. I think of it as a container, a vessel, a repository of gifts and sustenance. This bag is a sign that I am reliant on the labor of others to feed me, to get food to me. I’m grateful.
Painting the bags becomes a ceremony of sorts, a deep deliberate engagement with the afterthought artifact that accompanies so many things, that serves me in so many ways. Here, it transforms. Each bag becomes an artistic medium, becomes an art-based process and product.
After I paint the strips, I cut them into smaller strips. These smaller strips then become pages I combine into book form.
I’m not sure what these books are. Are they books written in/as art? Are they the artifacts of a ritualistic practice of honoring the oft-ignored? Are they sketchbooks? Are they a collection of small paintings? Of cards to give? Other things? I’m not sure if I even need to define them.
I might just distribute them and see what happens.
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Danny Lazcano
Discarded Vinegar bottle made new and purposeful. Made ceremony with it and it took flight (literally). Joy and inner child were experienced along with imagination for the next generation.
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James Thurman
Julietta Singh is the author of The Breaks (forthcoming, Coffee House Press, 2021), No Archive Will Restore You (Punctum Books, 2018), and Unthinking Mastery: Dehumanism and Decolonial Entanglements (Duke UP, 2018). She teaches in English and Gender Studies at the University of Richmond.
Responses:
Alyana J.
Since having to wear mask, I realized I don’t have to think about my facial expressions, so I decided to record my facial expressions, specifically at home just because I truly don’t care what face expressions I make since there is no one around, I decided to just record/ draw little doodles of my face gestures which turned into a habit of me writing down/ documenting how I feel every evening, it has become a way of me just “letting go” and being more in-tune with myself and emotions.
Douglas Bailey
“The Birds” represent many things. the plague doctors of old the current pandemic. and the birds that ask questions are a reflection of the hand-blown glass birds back in the '80s that would constantly dip their heads in the water. as a novelty. here that is echoed by the actions of asking questions. The ceremony involved echos the question answer responses given at secret societies from the masons to eastern star, to the Grove in northern California, and many cults that have developed out of those groups. That type of ritual was turned on its head, to create a modern situation of current dysphoria.
My use of the horror motif in the film relates to the strife and the political horror in the streets and on the media today. Our day-to-day continued insanity of fueled and ginned up hate and division. although I was making art, media can twist this as violence which is what has been going on for quite some time. so to mimic this I filmed the making of art, a thoughtful practice to deliberately being misrepresented as violence, and the words of thoughtful practice and kind ritual to be that of something that seeps gloom and doom or that of creepy, further the discomfort of viewing. I must state that the saying that I have included in the ceremony has been my long-standing philosophy in both my blacksmithing practice of recycled material. my offering free karate lessons to inner-city kids paired my 26 years of working with special ed. My statement remains the same. all things with imagination time care and effort can become something new and beautiful. so that simplistic bird feeder may look, it still feeds many birds today as it still hangs in my lemon tree. and will become a school art project for a k-8 school.
Hayden W.
This is a response to Julietta Singh’s provocation, asking me to document my typically discarded items and to consider them in a new light.
Coffee Filter with Used Grounds.
Every morning my day starts with coffee. I have a bad habit of using filters for only a single cup of coffee, which is quite wasteful. An ulterior method would be to get a reusable filter, or a coffee maker designed for single cup production. Upon reflection, I think of what a room filled with every filter I’ve ever used would look like, if there’d be any room to breath. I also consider the coffee grounds, the husk of what flavorful essence the hot water forced out. To this end, I also consider the coffee. I think about how I drink cup after cup, rarely stopping to savor. I also recall an old biology report I did on coffee. Despite its health benefits, coffee farming typically ravages the environment. The best kind of coffee to buy are the brands that are “shade grown”, because forested areas are not chopped down to increase coffee bean production. Coffee bean plants typically grow in the shade, naturally.On top of researching how to properly recycle coffee filters, I found this link on several ways to reuse the old coffee grounds.
Plastic Toothpicks.
They’re the kind of ones that have little frayed ends that go between the teeth really well. I use like two a day. They’re small, but they surely add up in landfills and the like. I should switch to wooden ones, but they do not get between the teeth properly. I suppose overall, floss is the most environmentally friendly thing. I researched many options for biodegradable floss, so that’s something to think about. Would it be possible to wash a plastic toothpick for repeated use?
Orange Peel.
This one provides an opportunity for reflection on survival and nature. The orange exists as sustenance for me and I peel off the skin like it's a candy wrapper. But that wrapper exists to protect the orange, so that it can survive and spread its seeds. So in a way, the orange is a sacrifice of a lesser being, just like eating meat. The only difference is that the orange plant never felt any pain when it was harvested. I would like a world where it was guaranteed an animal would never have to suffer for me to eat it.It almost seems like a waste to throw something away so bright and vibrant. I could start putting them in some drinking water to soak in orange flavoring.
Disinfectant Wipes.
Terrible for the environment, but so convenient for cleaning. To add to the guilt of using them, I often use paper towels to dry off the residue. I clean less than normal people, but it's no excuse. These are some of the two worst offenders of the landfill crisis. I will use this reflection to consciously make an effort to clean via reusable methods.
Pizza Box.
Such a waste of advertising. Not to mention, the pizza itself still has a plastic wrapping and a cardboard base. When will mankind learn to consider these types of problems? One single wrapper is all you need for a stiff, frozen pizza. It doesn’t even need to be in color, just the brand name, health info, and instructions. I do recycle my cardboard, so I can take some credit for that.I will also take a second to appreciate the artists that create such colorful and attractive boxes for these soulless corporations to make their product. Even though that artist is selling their talents in a problematic way, there's still passion behind the design.
To be honest, most other items on my daily list of trash are mostly just variations of these kinds of items. What highlighting these few have done is provided a moment to reflect on all the waste I produce and whether or not I do enough (I don’t).To complete the provocation, I’ve decided to utilize the old coffee grounds to create a small piece of art, to help appreciate the gratuitous amounts of coffee I drink every year.
In my piece, which I’ve decided to leave untitled, was a spur of the moment gestural painting. Acrylic paint, raw umber, was combined with water and used coffee grounds to create a gritty, earthy paste. I spread this mixture over unprimed canvas, taped to a board for security. Having just drunk a cup of coffee, I used my energetic brush strokes to frantically create a mass near the center of the canvas and moved outward. The outcome was a static looking blob that seemed to be moving in every direction, as if the coffee grounds were atoms colliding at unfathomable speeds. I noticed that the work could resemble a meteorite, perhaps representing planet Earth's speedy path towards doom.The work does have an urgency to it, possibly brought on by the coffee running through my veins. I think it represents the masses of trash building up in our canvas that we call Earth.
Emily P.
I choose to waste my time apologizing and caring for others, all while I harm myself without apology. My makeup bag does not have makeup, but the things I use and abuse daily to keep me beautiful in the eyes of those around me. Moisturizer to keep my skin silky smooth, a disposable vape to sustain the oral fixation I have developed from stress, and the xanax prescription I have had since I was fifteen years old to hide the symptoms of my mental illness. I am perceived as put together, yet I flush away pills into my bloodstream. I fill my lungs with smoke. A way of maintaining myself that will surely harm me, the way others do to me, but I find solace in knowing that this harm is my choice. The containers empty day by day, as my needs for consumption scream internally and externally. I honor this waste, for it is the gasoline in my body, as though I am nothing more than a vehicle. I will forever be stuck in the cycle of being a consumer.
Katie H.
While walking through the park I noticed a landscaper trimming trees and bushes and blowing the stray leaves away with the leaf blower. I collected some of the leaves and sticks and weaved them together with som fibers. I took the artwork back to the same park and hung the weaving on a tree in front of a flat rock to use as a meditation focal point.
Oriana G.
Every other week my partner buys me a bouquet of flowers, typically roses. We both enjoy keeping fresh flowers in the apartment and at times will have multiple different bouquets. I typically just wait until the flowers have lived their course and dispose of them, but I decided to cleanse some petals as they were slightly drying. After being sanitized, they were laid out on a paper towel in direct sunlight to air dry.
After a couple of weeks of collecting, cleansing, and drying, I then collected all the necessary ingredients for a rose petal sugar scrub. I am a resourceful and sustainable queen, so I gathered a reusable jar, coconut oil, sugar (in the Smuckers jar), lavender oil, and of course my rose petals. I cleansed the jar with a “Compassion” incense while setting my intentions by repeating the mantra “I love myself. I am enough. I have everything I need.” I continued to repeat the mantra while crushing up the petals, adding in oils, and mixing in the sugar.
At the end of my ritual, I expressed my gratitude to all my ingredients and where they came from. I thanked the roses for their beauty and antioxidants. I thanked the sugar for its sweetness and exfoliating texture. I thanked the coconut oil for its moisture and prosperity. I thanked the lavender for its soothing element and grace. Now I must thank Julietta Singh for the provocation. Thank you!
Mindi R.
I grabbed brown paper grocery bags from our continually growing stack, an unwanted product of grocery shopping during the pandemic. I tear off any handles and cut the bags apart, transforming them into long strips.
Then using thinned acrylic paints, I paint each side, sometimes swirling colors in a limited palette, sometimes trying spray paint. This time, I used 6 bags.
When the first sides dry I flip them and paint the other sides.
This process is meditative. It allows reflection on the materials involved, the bag itself, it’s purposes in all its incantations and embodiments. I think of it as a container, a vessel, a repository of gifts and sustenance. This bag is a sign that I am reliant on the labor of others to feed me, to get food to me. I’m grateful.
Painting the bags becomes a ceremony of sorts, a deep deliberate engagement with the afterthought artifact that accompanies so many things, that serves me in so many ways. Here, it transforms. Each bag becomes an artistic medium, becomes an art-based process and product.
After I paint the strips, I cut them into smaller strips. These smaller strips then become pages I combine into book form.
I’m not sure what these books are. Are they books written in/as art? Are they the artifacts of a ritualistic practice of honoring the oft-ignored? Are they sketchbooks? Are they a collection of small paintings? Of cards to give? Other things? I’m not sure if I even need to define them.
I might just distribute them and see what happens.
Danny Lazcano
Discarded Vinegar bottle made new and purposeful. Made ceremony with it and it took flight (literally). Joy and inner child were experienced along with imagination for the next generation.
James Thurman
As part of my efforts to live healthier, I eat an orange or mandarin orange every day. I became experimenting with keeping the peels and seeing what happened as they dried. Being a metalsmith and jeweler, I often unconsciously place objects on my body, especially my hands, to see how they look as personal adornment. By simply holding the discarded peels in place with a toothpick as they dried, they became quite wearable rings.
Nikki Fairchild
I have a shelf of discarded things (well ok more than one shelf)…why do I keep these things and what do they do?
I do not have an inventory of these things (objects/bodies) but, for and with me, they are intra-active nexus points of spacetimemattering. I don’t necessarily ‘dwell’ on them but they affectively connect me to past present and future happenings. These things collaborate with, and co-constitute, my own becomings (as a researcher, teacher, academic, colleagues, parent, spouse). They matter, and in mattering they become a matter of care – maybe dwelling on things becomes reconstituted as a (re)membering of events and practice that influence, trouble and are in relations with us. The things on my shelves are agentic and offer new possibilities for thinking/doing whenever they re-enter my field of vision. These things matter to me, they are productive, they assemble and generate assemblages, they produce new affective resonances in/with me…even though to some they are inanimate objects that should be discarded.
SP
As a professional portrait photographer, I discard hundreds of photos a day. Each imperfection, a snarl instead of a smile, eyes closed from the bright sunlight, the misery of staring into the sun, all tossed into a virtual recycle bin never to be thought of again. These works of art cast away so easily, are people’s true self. We want the image of perfection shown on our Instagram, our mantle, and given away as Christmas cards, yet we shy away from the silly faces, the awkward moments, and in reality our true self. We think that no one wants to see that and I as the photographer have a role to play in this false sense of reality my clients wish to portray. I can’t send them the photos of silliness, of the awkward moments, or the conversations when they thought I wasn’t taking a photo. These images don’t sell and the clients do not want them. Looking over the images from my shoots this weekend, I see a pattern, I see a flow, I see life in it’s rarest moments. Life happening, people conversing, silly faces, these moments in time are not captured and kept on record any more. Therefore, I have created a collage of those images, preserved in time, showing what people do not want to share; reality.
Hermance L.
I waste much more than I think I do. For the past few days, I have been paying great attention to the things I discard, from my pasta water to my plastic wrappings of the pasta. The only thing not wasted would be the pasta. Most of my waste and consumption comes from food. The other night I ordered take out (way too tired to cook for myself), and I still have my curry frozen in the freezer. The food came in a paper bag, with single use napkins that I keep in case guests would like to use it instead of a serviette. Instead of using the paper bag for my next trip to the dumpster, I decided this would be my canvas for the week. I was going to do a collage, but I did not have glue, so I looked around to see what else I was planning on discarding and my ashtray came to mind. So, I made a makeshift smudging stick with an old page from my daily journal and decided to draw a face. I have no proper art training, but this ended up being my project for the night, playing with the ashes. I ended up losing track of time with this project. It was mesmerizing seeing how different levels of burnt produce different types of textures and opacities. It was so much fun feeling the paper and ash bits under my finger, seeing the gray beginning to turn into a face. It was very difficult to do the details, as my makeshift smudging tool did not work very well. But it was so fun playing with all these materials I would have thrown away without any thought. What used to be my trash is now my play at the end of the day.
Cheyenne H.
An Ode to Makeup Wipes
At the beginning of the day, I put on a strong face.
A veneer that protects me and gives me strength.
I straighten my posture and take on the world.
By the end of the day, I’m weary, my body aches, I'm tired.
I just want to sleep.
My body is heavy.
The veneer I put so much effort in is wearing away.
Smeared and smudged after the stressors of the day.
My real self is showing through.
My confidence is waning.
I don't have the energy to shower.
So instead, I pick up a makeup wipe.
So simple, so soft.
I gently run it over my face.
Watching as my mask of confidence wipes away.
White now stained with bright vivid colors along with muddled and muted blacks and browns.
My raw self is revealed.
My true self.
A comfort.
I pass the wipe over my face again.
And when I look up, I see me.
I feel like makeup wipes are one of those things that are often taken for granted. I definitely don't think about them too frequently. They are just a convenient invention that makes life very easy. When you're tired at the end of the day and don't feel like showering you can just pick up a wipe and wipe all the stress away. For that reason, I obviously decided to make a little poem just showing my appreciation for makeup wipes. I wanted to memorialize them and really express the comfort that they bring especially at the end of a very rough tiring day.
Brandon H.
Discarded conscious thoughts:
In my daily life I spend a lot of time in my head so taking the time to search through my brain’s "spam emails" was like a decluttering exercise. Some of the “emails” I found were the quick observations that add to the greater picture of the world I walk through everyday, like the details in a person’s face, the wear markings in a chair in a cafe lobby, or the smells in the outside air. Spending time with these thoughts creates a scene of a play in which my life is displayed on the playbill and I’m the leading actor. Taking these senses and emotions that I cast aside throughout my mind’s inbox I can create a priority list that adds to my daily life, and gives value to the otherwise unimportant happenings in my life.
Stephanie M.
Attune yourself to what you routinely discard without conscious thought or feeling.
I took a plastic lid and drew small figures.
I cut them out and stuck them in the oven for a few min to shrink them down. I throw away Paper towels Water bottles Glass bottles Cans
Glass jars Plastic bottles Plastic packaging.
Make something with and for the disposable thing.
Create ceremony with it, honoring it by allowing it to emerge as artful practice.
Here they are, It doesn’t look like the instructions looked but they are still cute, and now we ceremonially play with them!
I didn’t want to make something for it because I didn’t want to create more trash, and I didn’t have a hole puncher otherwise it would have been a necklace.
Anonymous
I never realized how working from home full time while also taking classes full time really sucks up a majority of the free time I do have. As a result of that, I decided to pick up knitting my blanket again and track how many rows I could accomplish throughout my week. I devoted my late nights to finishing a total of 3 squares (the 4th is half way there). Although there is still a lot of blanket to be knit, I can cover my lap with these 3 (almost 4) squares.
Tsz Yu C.
“Craft an inventory of things easily disavowed, pitched, or flushed away in your every day life.”
- Plastic scraps from food and cosmetics packaging
- The little burrs and spiky seeds that my dog carries in with her from walks
- Empty pens
- Hairs on the ground (both my own and dog’s)
I made this list quickly, without thinking too hard, because I didn’t want to give myself an opportunity to justify why things should or shouldn’t be thrown away. I honestly don’t throw too many things away in daily life because I’m Chinese, and in our culture it’s very normal to be thrifty and hold onto material objects for a very long time, even if we’re not sure what we’ll use them for yet. However, I do dispose of things I find dirty or obsolete, which seems extreme in comparison to my parents’ tendencies. A central tenet of Chinese philosophy is to be modest with your things and never wasteful. I chose this prompt, though, because sometimes I feel at odds with this cultural belief since I am more Westernised (and grew up more well-off) than my parents and therefore more entrenched in capitalistic disposability culture. I believe there must be a balance—some things should be thrown out to keep the house clean, or if they truly have no functional use anymore. I live with my parents, and it sometimes frustrates and confuses me that they refuse to throw out even small scraps of dirty fabric. Through this exercise, I hope to understand more about where they’re coming from by simulating the same care and attachment that they do with some things that I perhaps take for granted.
“Dwell on these wasted things, lingering with them.”
As I consider this empty pen (one of probably a hundred in our house because my mom collects them from hotel lobbies, waiting rooms, special events, basically anywhere that free pens might be given out), I am suddenly awash with sadness. I know that my mom collects objects because she was once so poor, but I forgot that perhaps her special love for pens comes from how hard-won her education was. My mother never made it past high school because in 1960’s-1970’s Hong Kong, the public school system was underfunded and ill-equipped. It follows that adequate school supplies, like pens and paper, were a rarity for my mom. Even now, my mom is a little ashamed that she never went to university, and sometimes tells me that she feels very dumb, and that people told her that she was slow her entire life. Could these pens be an unconscious or conscious symbol for her? A manifestation of her wish to go back to school, to be seen as smart and competent? I know that finishing her education is super precious to her, and a dear dream that she longs to fulfil one day.
I decided to use the pen in an abstract drawing of my mom's dream self. She frequently speaks to me about how she wishes she could go back to school and start an educational business to help immigrant mothers like herself. By using the empty pen as a part of this illustration, I'm honouring that though it's not glamorous, it's a symbolic part of my mom's story and I need to respect that. If I am to support her in this dream, I must have deeper compassion for all facets of her and her quirks, even if they don't make sense to me at first.
Krizel Z.
As an illustrator, I often work with various kinds of paper. In my arts and crafts drawer, I have a collection of cut-up and misprinted papers, as well as post-it notes. Usually, I do not have any plan of using these discarded papers; however, I decided to fold these papers into origami cranes as a way to create something new rather than wasting paper. I also used leftover wires from my past projects to create a mobile out of paper cranes. I was introduced to the art of origami as a child and it was something I enjoyed doing in my free time. Now that I am an adult, I rarely find time to create origami. Essentially, this opportunity to reuse my old papers to make art filled me with nostalgia and allowed me to reflect on how I use the materials that I have. In the end, I realized that I must be more mindful of the materials I waste.
Olivia C.
I have a sudden knack for botany and my boyfriend has been made aware of this on SEVERAL accounts while dealing with ramblings of me talking about plants, flowers, landscapes and the language of flowers. I greatly appreciate nature and find that its something that never lets me down without picking me back up with something else I decide to find. With that being said, my cycles of life are also something that I have come to appreciate. I have moments of mental fog and despair in that I have a lot to carry on my heart a lot of the times. My boyfriend is very supportive and during these moments he will bring me flowers. I have an issue where I hoard them, dry them and prop them up in vases and place them around the house. I have saved them all from going straight to the trash because I have also found that putting together something so special and having it serve its purpose in a different state, provides proof that there is not just one way to do things all the time. Now that they are dried, they hold on to the scents around them instead of their natural scent. So I have learned to prop them up and spray them down with a few sprays of my perfume every now and then just to act as kind of a diffuser throughout my house to make my house smell better and also remind me of him. And yes, he gets me the same flowers every time, I love how they fit in my home.
Manan D.
We pet lovers enjoy spoiling our furry friends with new toys. I personally love to get my dogs new toys very frequently, at one point Amazon was delivering boxes for them on a weekly basis. As excited as my dogs get when they receive something new to play with they always seem to go back to one of their favorite old toys. For instance my German Shepherd, Jasper, loves to play with his squeaky ball. No matter what toy I get for him he always just plays with this ball. Sometimes I feel like dogs are just like children. We feel like we need to get them way more than what they actually need. Yes, there are cheap toys that you can get but those last less than a day in our house since both my dogs are super chewers. I have to get them the indestructible toys which usually end up costing $20 a piece. I realized the unnecessary expenses that I was incurring and so I am now learning to be frugal. I find that the dogs prefer that I play with them with their favorite toy versus them playing with a new toy by themselves. Spending quality time is more valuable than just buying an abundance of toys.
Adding more waste
Day by day
Used for the moment
Forgotten about the next
Until the trash is full a must be taken out
Finally finding a use, even if temporary, for the things I collect while deciding how I’m going to repurpose them, is exactly why I’ve kept these. Hiding in a box, waiting for the right moment, others would say I’m hoarding them but I think it’s hoarding if you keep many things forever and don’t find a use for them. Pill bottles float around my backpack for mini first aid kits, headphone containers, bobby and safety pins. They are used when I gift seeds to my seed exchange group, for keeping small things dry, and storing fire making kits for camping, button and bead containers. The longer I save these bottles and let them linger with me, it empowers me to remember that although I take pills to keep myself going, I’m still going. Going through more pills, going through life, going through things. I’m going here, there and this all will go away someday.
Teanna O.
Tyler W.
As a designer, I am required to work with a variety of materials, such as paper, chipboard, Bristol, and much more. Part of the job, however, requires me to be selective and keen to little details. As much as I try and plan to execution the project as efficiently and cost effectively as possible, I am always left with excess materials. This left me constantly pondering how I can make the most out of the extra supplies. One of my solutions was to recycle my excess materials back into work. As seen in the pictures, I decided to use my left-over chipboard to create a secure and sturdy folder to store my delicate project inside of. Not only did I create a way to protect my work from the elements, I found a somewhat sustainable way to reuse the waste. I also love to have fires in the pit in my backyard, which allows me to use the extra paper scraps as fire starters!
Gustavo Alegria
Crafting an inventory of things I easily disavow, pitch or flush away without a second thought.
Lime Tree
In my backyard, for the past four years since I moved in, I have allowed limes to go to waste. Since the pandemic everything I have learned about myself and everything outside of myself is that nothing ever goes to waste. Applying what I have learned: Internal emotional baggage has always been there for me to unpack and learn from, the pandemic shone a light on what was festering inside, just like limes under a tree. This year limes are getting squeezed, zested and stored for future use, just like the lessons I now see stored in my mind’s baggage.
Olive Tree
How many olive trees do you walk, drive or cycle by? For me that number looks like a rough 15. This year I take splendor in everything everyone else misses. Fresh, local free pressed olive oil? YUP! Urban foraging? Just started! Guerilla gardening? Count me in!
Schylar O.
Today I chose to craft an inventory of my discarded things. However, I found myself somewhat disappointed, but happy at the same time. It is now 5:00pm, and I only have one piece of trash—a granola bar wrapper. I was disappointed because I wanted to create something complex out of a variety of things. I am happy that I discard less than I thought previously. It may have been because it was a busy day for me, or maybe I was being more conscious about the things I was getting rid of. Nonetheless, I see this as a good thing, and will continue being aware of the things I abandon. Out of the granola bar wrapper, I made an art piece by cutting up the wrapper and gluing the pieces to a piece of multimedia paper. When I cut it up, I did it organically and did not cut specific shapes, to represent spontaneity and accepting things for what they are. I depicted one of my favorite sceneries—the starry night sky. I love trees also, so I included one as well. Using a piece of trash, I honored it by represented it as things I desire to be, and things that I love.
Anonymous
I’ve always had a hard time letting go of the things that people give to me. I save every birthday card, every gift tag, and every handwritten note that is given to me. If someone gifts me an article of clothing, it will stay in my closet for years after it stops fitting me. It doesn’t matter if it’s falling apart, I can’t part with it. Some may consider this somewhat of a hoarding behavior, but to me, each of these things hold sentimental value. One of my favorite gifts in the world is flowers. A fresh bouquet always looks so beautiful. But it’s always so disappointing when they die. For many years, I would throw away all my dead flowers. It always made me sad to do so, because as I mentioned earlier, I hold on to absolutely everything that someone gifts me. However, I didn’t think it would be practical to start collecting entire bouquets of dead flowers. What I have started to do is turn the dead flowers into decoration for my room. I do not keep the entire bouquet, just the petals. I have begun collecting the dried petals from these bouquets and collecting them in a mason jar. I display the mason jar in my room as decoration, and to appreciate the flowers that were gifted to me. I think that it’s a shame for someone to spend $10- $20 on flowers when they will be in the trash within a week. Saving them allows me to appreciate their beauty for a longer amount of time.
Anonymous
Empty Paper Towel roll:
I use at least one paper towel a day. I find them so convenient for me to take when I’m on the go to protect my food, dry my hands etc. It’s easier to grab a paper towel, instead of looking for a towel to use because after it gets dirty I have to wash it; but on the other hand with a paper towel I can just throw it away. After all of the usable paper towels are gone all that is left is the roll and I would normally just dispose of it. Disposing the roll isn’t the only option, I could hang a kitchen towel to dry my hands and prevent the extensive use. Another way I was also able to put use to the roll was to turn it into room decor. I colored the roll with brown marker on the outside and made this cute flower shaped decoration.
Anonymous
One thing that few people know about me is that when I was younger, I used to go to work with my father, who is a landscaper, and I learned a lot from him. During my time working with my father, I noticed that many of his clients would ask him to remove a plant simply because they didn't like it, so my father would remove it and dispose of it. I didn't think this was fair, so I proposed to my father that we take these plants home and make a small little garden out of all of the plants that his clients didn't want. Our home now has a lot of new plants, which makes it look really lovely and green.
Bri B.
I find myself walking by strangers and then disregarding their presence and their individuality. As I am walking through campus I see these people as background characters in my story. I need to focus more on other people and how they are all living their own stories and I need to be considerate to remember the importance of each person in my life even if I just see them for a few seconds. Taking time to notice a stranger and tell them that you like their hair or outfit is very important to do sometimes as it can make someone's day and it is so simple. I also tend to be a hoarder in some way as I have a hard time throwing things away as I feel that they will be beneficial to me in the future. I keep a cluster of things on my desk at all times thinking that I will need them at some point.
Gen R.
Watercolor painting is something I do in my free time. When I paint I try to get unique textures and blends of color every time using the different materials I have on hand. One of those materials is a paper towel. I use ripped-up pieces to soak up the color and normally throw them away once I finish the artwork. However, I look at the small papers full of my expensive and bright watercolor pigments and wonder if I could still find another use for them. The colors of the paper worked well with one another because I recently painted a scene full of nature. I wanted to compose a piece that was full of these bright colors and brought them together with the texture of the paper towel.
Tomasi M.
These strings were a part of a white sage bundle, holding the leaves together. I gave this sage to my mother and took the string as she unraveled it by burning it. I knew I wanted to use it to create something so this activity was perfect for me. The “ceremony” I had was the simple act of creating these “flowers”. They aren’t the prettiest but making them was almost like a ritual with how concentrated I was when placing the string to the board. I had to be precise with my placement otherwise it can easily fall apart. The three flowers are all made differently when it comes to their petals and I think of them as the rejects of the bouquet.
Micah C.