Eco-art | Inhabitat

Recycled Plastic Wrap Art!

If you’ve ever lamented having to throw away a piece of saran wrap, this might cheer you up. This rather striking piece of outdoor eco-art is made out of 10,000 feet of recycled plastic-wrap salvaged from a warehouse! Reader amputectecture says:

“This piece invited people to leave the prescribed paths and enter the chained-off grass. The plan was comprised of four triangles, radiating from one tree in varying heights to create a temporary exhibition space.”

Very cool. Thanks for the tip amputecture!

ECO ART: Vintage Needlework Upcycled as Trophy Art

by Moe Beitiks, 02/06/10

Saddened by the sight of abandoned needlework, a family of designers at Frederique Morrel have made upcycling tapestry their main passion. From old piles of handmade drapes, to forgotten pillows, to intricately woven knick-knaks leftover from the neigbor’s rummage sale, these designers are rescuing embroidery from oblivion by transforming passed over pieces into new beautifully crafted foot-stools, couches, and stunning woodland creatures.

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ECO ART: Brilliant Images Carved into Leaves

by Moe Beitiks, 01/30/10

Why settle for a postcard of the Mona Lisa, when you could have a hand-carved leaf engraved with her mysterious face? Making art with leaves isn’t a new idea, but several online purveyors have taken the medium to a new level. Offering up intricately cut images of everything from landscapes to the female form to even Napoleon – yes, you can have the face of the famous emperor cut into a leaf and framed - sustainable art just got a little more interesting.

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Makedo Connector System Turns Trash into Treasures

by Diane Pham, 01/18/10

Are you in need of some cool new décor for your barren apartment? For us more fiscally challenged individuals it seems like the easiest and cheapest thing to do is to tack up a poster of our favorite movie or painting. Boring! But don’t let the 2D world get you down, because the clever Aussies at Makedo have created an ingenious new way to breathe some life into our drab living spaces. Their simple DIY connector system lets you get your creativity going while turning your old piles of junk and trash into some funky treasures!

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ECO ART: Greenhouse Britain Opens in San Francisco

If you’re in the Bay Area right now, you have an extraordinary opportunity to take a glimpse into the work of two eco-art pioneers: Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison. Since 1974, the Harrisons have focused their work on hot button environmental topics, addressing dire issues such as global warming. Their latest project dubbed Greenhouse Britain is currently on exhibit at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley. The exhibit features models and renderings focused on the Earth’s rising sea levels, strategies for survival and alternative futures.

New Zealand Train Station Transformed Into Green Meadow

Often times standing around in even the most modern and sleek subway stations can be an utter drag. But imagine the surprise if your local platform suddenly sprouted a vast green meadow! Not too long ago Auckland New Zealand’s Britomart Station received a grassy green makeover that transformed 1,250 square meters of its cold hard concrete into a plush green field.

INTERVIEW: Ian Garrett Reports on COP15 and the Arts

To get the word on the cultural scene at COP15, Inhabitat asked some juicy questions of Ian Garrett, co-founder of the Center for Sustainable Practice of the Art (CSPA). Garrett also teaches Sustainable Theater and Management Technology courses at the California Institute of the Arts, which makes him the perfect guy to get the green perspective on this massive climate-cultural gathering. Read on to hear his take on creative demonstrating, tipping points, and the paradox of flying to a conference about global warming!

ECO ART: A Glimpse Into COP15’s Exhibits and Installations

Whether it’s through education, perspective-shifting installations, scientific research, or direct action, art is very much a part of the global-warming dialogue and this has never been more apparent than during COP15. Beyond the flock of individual installations and exhibitions currently showing in Copenhagen, numerous COP15 focused exhibitions and spin-offs are appearing beyond the borders of Denmark. Over the next week Inhabitat will be jumping into all that is COP15 eco-art, but before we do that we’d love to give you a sampling of our favorite standouts thus far!

Incredible ‘Garbage City’ Rises Outside of Cairo

This unbelievable city piled high with trash is a real place called Garbage City, outside of Cairo in Egypt. It’s populated by a community of workers called Zabbaleen, who personally collect, sort, reuse, resell or otherwise repurpose Cairo’s waste. Recently several photographers have trained their cameras upon the city, and now we see what it would really be like to live in the aftermath of our own consumption.

The Green Sight + Sound Eco Art Benefit is Tonight in SF!

CALLING ALL SAN FRANCISCANS!
If you’re looking for a way to recover from the rampant consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you might want to head out to the Mina Dresden Gallery tonight for a chance to party, collect amazing eco-art, and support two non-profts at the green sight + sound benefit! Awesome eco-artists like Nils Udo, Ned Kahn, Josh Keyes, and Inhabitat’s own Abigail Doan will be putting their work up for auction with proceeds going to the 4th season of ME’D1.ATE’s Soundwave Festival entitled GREEN SOUND as well as other programs at ecoartspace.

Kris Kuksi’s Recycled Toy Sculptures Will Scare the Kids

The beautiful thing about upcycled materials is that the end results often bear no resemblance to the original items. Such is the case with sculptor Kris Kuksi’s toy sculptures, which are constructed out of old toys, statues, and mechanical parts.

Los Angeles Without Traffic!

It’s a ghost highway in the middle of LA! Not the result of road closures, the apocalypse, a zombie scare, or a massive increase in the price of petroleum, this series of car-less highways are the brainchild of photographer Tom Baker. Curious as to what a traffic-less Los Angeles would look like, Baker went ahead and created this vision through the wonders of photoshop. The result is a series of images that are eerily calming.

Terrafon Plays the Earth as an Instrument

If the earth could make music, what kind of songs would it sing? This crazy contraption, called the Terrafon, actually lets us find out the answer to that question! Designed as a huge turntable tone arm and transducer, this musical instrument plays the earth like a big gravelly vinyl record. Artists Olle Cornéer and Martin Lübcke premiered it as part of a performance entitled “Harvest” at the Volt Music Festival in Sweden. Read on to check out the video of these determined choir musicians as they drag the big wooden tool-of-music through the Swedish countryside.

Junk Dunks: Upcycled Nike Sneakers Made From Metal Circuit Boards

When it comes to kicks, the rarer the better. And if you’re looking for originality, we guarantee you won’t find another pair quite like these upcycled junk-metal Jordans by artist Gabriel Dishaw. He whips metal and electronic scraps from old computers into crazy DIY shoe sculptures that will have any sneakerhead foaming at the mouth. We don’t advise wearing them …

re:Use Canopy Upcycled from Plastic Cups by BIOS Design Collective

One of the main principles of permaculture is that “the problem is the solution.” Problem: tons of waste cups created by attendees of the OutsideLands concert in San Francisco. Solution: a fabulous recycled cup canopy. BIOS Design Collective tapped a keg and invited their friends over for a canopy party, building a gorgeous wave of concave color at Stable Cafe just in time for Architecture and the City.

Mud Stencils Create Environmentally-Conscious Graffiti

DIY graffiti doesn’t have to be ugly– it can be thought-provoking, challenging, and perhaps most importantly, temporary. Jesse Graves, an artist based in Milwaukee Wisconsin, has harnessed mud as an artistic medium to take his green graffiti to the streets, and he encourages others to do the same.

GREEN RANT: Lame Eco-Art

So, by this point, I think it’s pretty clear that we, the humans, have messed up on a pretty grand scale. You don’t need me to read you the stats again. We need several more planets. We make and consume a lot of crap. There are islands of crap in the ocean. There’s crap in the rivers, crap in our bodies, crap in the air. All of this crap is difficult to digest, you know, on a daily level. Nobly, many artists are facing this pile of crap and trying to make compost from it. Problem is, some eco-art is actually pretty crappy.

SonUmbra Solar Powered Tree Lights up the Night

As advancements in lighting technology unveil fresh materials, we’re thrilled to see designers exploring new ways to light up the night. SonUmbra is a solar-powered tree composed of strands of light-emitting fabric woven into a lucent web of branches. The installation’s canopy of photovoltaic panels captures light during the day, and once the sun sets the tree blooms in an interactive flourish of light and sound.

Floating Green: A Grassy Bench

A lush lawn can be a wonderful thing to stretch out on. Unfortunately, the high-maintenance needs, which include frequent seeding and fertilizing, of grass can make it more of a pain than a joy, leaving would-be loungers disappointed. Fortunately, grassy seating can put back some of the fun. The idea of creating seating out of grass is no new concept, as you may find with the lawnge chairs or living lawn chaise. In this formulation, the Floating Green, by Ling Fan, is a stretch of lawn that appears to have rebelled against horizontality by springing from the ground, doing an elegant twist and then settling into a vertically folded position to offer passers-by a place to sit.

Inhabitat Reports from London Design Festival 2009

The London Design Festival is in full swing, and Inhabitat has been on the scene to give you the scoop on the dazzling examples of sustainable design presented at this year’s event. Read on for our favorite products and innovations that we spotted this year.