Trash Cans as Public Art

If your notion of a trash can is simply that of an everyday utilitarian product, you should take a look at what the non-profit known as the Steel Yard has been working on for the past few years. As part of its Urban Furniture program, the Steel Yard, based in a 5600 SF industrial space in Providence, Rhode Island, collaborated with local artists to design and fabricate a series of distinctive steel trash cans (along with a number of other street-based art/products), in an effort to revitalize and beautify the Industrial Valley district within the city. Working with the Olneyville Housing Corporation, the organization sought to create aesthetically beautiful (as well as thought provoking) works of art and function, that would aid in improving the neighborhood of Olneyville, while at the same time elevating the public dialogue of what it means to be a community in transition.

(All photographs courtesy of Steelyard’s flickr gallery)

On one level, what the Steel Yard has done with this project, is demonstrate how a community of diverse populations, vocations, etc, can come together to essentially “unify” a city, even if one neighborhood at a time, and how this can be done through the installation of functional “street art”. If urban living does eventually become the norm, it is all the more reason to make our urban spaces more enjoyable and livable, and hopefully more cities will realize that something as simple as a trash can presents an accessible way to achieve that. And to do so through creative collaboration, is surely a testament to how strong a community like Olneyville has already become.

Tree Stool Integrates Bench With a Tree Barrier

Tree’s Stool
2005
powder-coated steel
140 x ø 80cm
For the first exhibition of the young Swiss collective INOUT, I imagined, as a playful project, the mutation of a standard tree’s barrier into a stool.

By Emanuelle Jaques