Ann Wizer’s Trashy Art
Ann Wizer is a visual artist and environmental activist living in Jakarta since year 2000. In Jakarta, there are over 450.000 garbage scavengers or pemulung picking over around 6 tons of trash of the city’s residents. Wizer sees this as an opportunity; she employs local scavengers for trash and then hire some of them to wash, sort, and sew the salvaged items into patterns that she designs. She manages the production under Project XS, an initiative developed by the artist herself, in collaboration with a community of local scavengers in both Jakarta and Yogyakarta. Not only that she makes fashion shoulder bags, but also furniture, chandeliers and pop-artistic installation created almost entirely using garbage and waste, specifically plastic coated ones. Aided by Angki Pubandono and Areifianao Tedja, Wizer has also produced a documentary movie [Link] on the project and its production process.
Interested in purchasing one of these artsy trash totes? Go straight ahead to XSProject official website.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — It feeds the poor and helps clean the streets and rivers. Handy for the beach or gym, it’s become one of the hottest fashion accessories in town. It’s the ultimate garbage bag — a plastic tote made from trash.
Chic and environmentally friendly, the bags are the brainchild of American artist Ann Wizer, a Jakarta resident whose sculptures made from consumer refuse are displayed in Asia’s most prestigious museums.
“Trash is my art medium,” Wizer says during a break at her spacious studio in South Jakarta, which is decorated with a mannequin clad in a tea-bag suit and where guests sit on stylish armchairs stuffed with shredded, plastic-coated paper.
The 50-year-old artist made her reputation with sculptures fashioned from disposable chopsticks, toothbrushes, plastic bottles, and even rubber sandals that washed up on a favorite beach.
Then she decided to see if she could create jobs for the poor and help the environment at the same time in a developing country where recycling is virtually nonexistent and garbage poses a serious health threat.
Read more at Wired
Blurb*: Should Rubber & Rubber Tech hire Wizer as their new creative director?
Hello. You are now reading an article written by Marisa Duma, published on 30Jun08 along with other notes on Activism, Articles On The Web, Arts and Culture, Jakarta, People.
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One’s trash is another one’s treasure!! Cool bags! They look pretty good don’t they?
And therry also says First Driving Lesson.
really good idea and cool products!! thanks for the info!
And rimafauzi also says My Favorite Movie and TV Lines.
She has done it for a while now. I bought a mama lemon tote from a shop in Kemang about five years ago. It is very durable and I still use it to bring my lunch to work.
There is one company who does that too here in the Philippines and they got featured in CNN just last week. They use ex billboard material. I know that Indonesia produces tons of the billboard MMT waste each week. I think it is brilliant to recycle those giant trash. Maybe we can pitch the idea to her?
But again, she might already know that …
OMG. Did you check out the price? I think I bought it for less than 15 dollars. Now for the exact same thing it cost USD 38 .. oh my …
I don’t know what others think, but that’s not a good business strategy. You can’t help the poor if people can’t afford to buy your products.
That company I told you about in Philippines, they sell the bags they made back to the advertising companies who then donate those bags to school children in rural areas.
[...] Project yang diprakarsai oleh Ann Wizer diliput oleh web portal Treehugger. XS Project membuat produk-produk berguna dari sampah, dengan [...]