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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W4112
23.05.2011
“Waste Work" ("Oeuvre Déchet”)  - Alexandre Dang
WWW
“Waste Work" ("Oeuvre Déchet”) Introduction Alexandre Dang is an artist committed towards raising awareness on issues linked with sustainable development. The theme explored in the artwork titled "Waste Work" (and described hereafter) is "waste" ...

“Waste Work" ("Oeuvre Déchet”)

Introduction Alexandre Dang is an artist committed towards raising awareness on issues linked with sustainable development. The theme explored in the artwork titled "Waste Work" (and described hereafter) is "waste": this theme presents huge contemporary societal issues, where consumption coupled with overproduction of waste seem to characterize our daily lives. To symbolize this questioning around waste, Alexandre Dang would like to create a “shocking” work that can both educate the viewer and also allow taking part in the debate through art itself. Specifically, the proposed artwork materializes as follows: "a significant artwork having suffered damage during a disaster is placed inside a trash can." The proposed artwork of Alexandre Dang is the trash can (or a garbage container) and the artwork damaged by a disaster. The ideal would be to use, as artwork, a painting of a major artist (for example a Picasso (or so)) fatally damaged in a fire or a collapsed house...

Physical description of the work The work herewith described for "unrealized projects" consists of a significant artwork (for example an original high value painting of Picasso) having suffered damage (through a disaster or so) and a trash bin containing this damaged artwork.

Symbolic and reflection on the project This appears to be new, because if the theme of waste has already been used by many artists who transform waste into works of art, no high value artwork (of museum quality) has never been reduced to the level of waste in the art world. Many possible readings and questions emerge from this artwork which seems to be particularly rich and strong. Here are two of them:

  • Through this artwork, the artist raises the question of whether an artwork can be considered as an ordinary consumer good and thus becoming a waste.

  • Through this artwork, the painting turned into waste becomes a new work of art. The painting follows a cycle "life" "death" and "resurrection". "Life": when the painting was originally done by the original artist, "Death": corresponds to the phase of the damage and disaster; "Resurrection" through the new work (by putting it into a trash bin and exhibiting it as a new artwork). This cycle can also be analyzed similarly to recycling; the damaged work finds here a second life, as recycled objects. But can we really talk about recycling in art like an ordinary consumer good?

  • This work opens up many questions. Can art be recycled? Can Art itself become a waste?

Issues in realizing this work of art: This project is virtually very difficult: - first because of the complexity to find a top quality artwork which is destroyed (most of the time such artworks are restored if they are damaged), - second: it would be necessary to receive the agreement from the original artist (or his estate) to carry out this project.

Contact: Artist: Alexandre Dang Rue de la Chasse Royale 7 1160 Bruxelles Belgique

info@dang.be www.alexandredang.com phone: 00 32 4 87 17 17 18

“Waste Work" ("Oeuvre Déchet”) Introduction Alexandre Dang is an artist committed towards raising awareness on issues linked with sustainable development. The theme explored in the artwork titled "Waste Work" (and described hereafter) is "waste" ...

“Waste Work" ("Oeuvre Déchet”)

Introduction Alexandre Dang is an artist committed towards raising awareness on issues linked with sustainable development. The theme explored in the artwork titled "Waste Work" (and described hereafter) is "waste": this theme presents huge contemporary societal issues, where consumption coupled with overproduction of waste seem to characterize our daily lives. To symbolize this questioning around waste, Alexandre Dang would like to create a “shocking” work that can both educate the viewer and also allow taking part in the debate through art itself. Specifically, the proposed artwork materializes as follows: "a significant artwork having suffered damage during a disaster is placed inside a trash can." The proposed artwork of Alexandre Dang is the trash can (or a garbage container) and the artwork damaged by a disaster. The ideal would be to use, as artwork, a painting of a major artist (for example a Picasso (or so)) fatally damaged in a fire or a collapsed house...

Physical description of the work The work herewith described for "unrealized projects" consists of a significant artwork (for example an original high value painting of Picasso) having suffered damage (through a disaster or so) and a trash bin containing this damaged artwork.

Symbolic and reflection on the project This appears to be new, because if the theme of waste has already been used by many artists who transform waste into works of art, no high value artwork (of museum quality) has never been reduced to the level of waste in the art world. Many possible readings and questions emerge from this artwork which seems to be particularly rich and strong. Here are two of them:

  • Through this artwork, the artist raises the question of whether an artwork can be considered as an ordinary consumer good and thus becoming a waste.

  • Through this artwork, the painting turned into waste becomes a new work of art. The painting follows a cycle "life" "death" and "resurrection". "Life": when the painting was originally done by the original artist, "Death": corresponds to the phase of the damage and disaster; "Resurrection" through the new work (by putting it into a trash bin and exhibiting it as a new artwork). This cycle can also be analyzed similarly to recycling; the damaged work finds here a second life, as recycled objects. But can we really talk about recycling in art like an ordinary consumer good?

  • This work opens up many questions. Can art be recycled? Can Art itself become a waste?

Issues in realizing this work of art: This project is virtually very difficult: - first because of the complexity to find a top quality artwork which is destroyed (most of the time such artworks are restored if they are damaged), - second: it would be necessary to receive the agreement from the original artist (or his estate) to carry out this project.

Contact: Artist: Alexandre Dang Rue de la Chasse Royale 7 1160 Bruxelles Belgique

info@dang.be www.alexandredang.com phone: 00 32 4 87 17 17 18