The volume of waste produced by humans is often the inspiration for art using recycled materials. Artists use their recycled art as a way to highlight the urgent need to tackle climate change and to provoke discussion around the need to reconsider our consumerist culture.
What Is Recycled Art?
Recycled art involves using recycled materials, or those that would otherwise be discarded as waste, to create beautiful, thought-provoking, and sometimes controversial works of art. Those materials can be anything from scrap metal, clothing and plastic bags to children’s toys and recycled electronics.
Some recycled art aims to become part of a circular economy, with materials reused and turned into objects that can be admired in galleries, as talking points at fundraising and awareness events, or even just being captured in a photograph on social media before being properly recycled and disposed of.
Examples Of Artists Known For Their Recycled Art
The techniques and materials used to make recycled art are hugely varied, and each artist uses their own methods to create something unique. Here are just a few examples of artists who use recycled materials, and their most famous works for you to enjoy.
Vik Muniz
Often hailed as being central to the recycled art movement, Vik Muniz is a Brazilian artist who, amongst other works, recreates famous art using recycled materials. He also often involves local communities in collecting the objects he needs, using anything from laminated glass, magazines, wires, and even items collected from the world’s largest wasteland.
Barefooted Welder
Micky D., also known as the Barefooted Welder, wanders through landfills barefoot (hence the name!) collecting scrap metal to produce incredible life-size and gigantic welded creatures. He’s collected more than seven tonnes of scrap metal since 2015, including copper, aluminium, and steel that he transforms into works of recycled art.
Yong Ho Ji
Contemporary Korean sculptor, Jong Ho Ji works with recycled tyres to create beautiful figures of mythical creatures and various animals. His work makes a statement about genetic modification as well as the relationship between waste and consumerism.
Tan Xi Zi
Artist and Illustrator Tan Xi Zi creates works of art from waste and recycled materials to highlight the needless volumes of rubbish we create from a culture of consumerism. She uses pieces of plastic and waste found in the ocean to make vast works that can be experienced by physically walking through them. The result is a haunting, stark demonstration of the amount of plastic waste generated by humans.
Derek Gores
Using recycled magazines and labels, combined with digital materials, Derek Gores creates collage portraits on canvas. He mainly focuses on creating beautiful, playful figures using raw items that are often geometric and not conventionally aesthetically pleasing.
Steven Rodrig
Recycled circuit boards and electronics are used in Steven Rodrig’s innovative works that combine the organic and mechanical. He develops special tools to assist in his creation of art made of PCB units from radios, mobile phones and old computers. His works often make reference to the interaction between waste and the environment, for example in his 2010 work, ‘Sea Turtle Searching for Deep Data’.
HA Schult
Conceptual artist HA Schult is well-known for his art using recycled materials and rubbish. His installation, “Trash People”, consists of one thousand full-sized human figures made entirely of rubbish, cans, and electrical waste. The work has toured every continent and has been taken to major tourist sites to make a statement about human consumption and wastefulness.
Erica Iris Simmons
Do you remember cassette tapes? Erica Iris Simmons uses the tightly wound tape material to create pop art portraits, as well as other works using money, sheet music and even wine labels. The key message of her recycled art is that not everything that has outlived its original intended use should go to waste.
Guerra de la Paz
Cuban artist collective, Guerra de la Paz creates recycled art to question modern consumerist society. Using recycled textiles and clothing, they create sculptures that are full of vibrant colours and life. The masses of materials used also serve to reinforce their message about the damage consumerism is doing to the environment. Fans of their work often comment that they feel inspired to change their ways by trying to avoid purchasing fast fashion and ignoring trends that involve needlessly buying new clothes.
Robert Bradford
Robert Bradford makes sculptures of life-sized people and creatures from discarded brightly coloured plastic. Mainly using children’s toys saved from landfill, he explores ideas of the history of the waste items and the story of their past. He also uses buttons, clothes pegs, brushes and combs to create his large works of recycled art.
How To Make Recycled Art
Your first experience of recycled art might be from the days of Blue Peter and fashioning model rockets out of washing up liquid bottles! You don’t have to be producing high-brow works with political messages, you might just want a fun activity to entertain the kids, with little to no waste or cost involved. It’s amazing what you can create from a few old plastic bottles and cereal boxes!
You can also experiment with creating collages with recycled magazine cuttings or, if you fancy a longer-term project, you could collect specific pieces of rubbish and turn them into something that reminds you of the importance of recycling.
