Here’s one artist whose works reflect his fight against excessive consumerism and the resulting environmental pollution in the form of waste. He’s Bordalo II. Going by the dictum ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’, he creates art from trash.
Bordalo II is concerned about the irresponsible generation, which, according to him, is extremely consumerist, materialistic and greedy, and that there’s simply no stopping it from creating trash through unused objects. His aim is simply that he states on his website, “I create, recreate, assemble and develop ideas with end-of-life material and try to relate it to sustainability, ecological and social awareness.”
It’s not surprising that this Lisbon-born Portuguese defines himself as an artist-activist. He started out as a graffiti artist, but soon felt like doing something different, since he had both street knowledge and rich collection of daily experiences. And the waste resulting from consumerism caught his imagination and became his inspiration. Today, he’s become one of the artists who use recycled plastic in his works.
Bordalo II’s aim of doing the series ‘Big Trash Animals’ was to draw attention to waste production and to materials that cannot be reused. The resulting environmental pollution adversely affects the planet. Doing this series is his attempt to prevent this huge problem from being forgotten or becoming trivial.
In an interview with isupportstreetart.com, he elaborates, “The idea is to depict nature itself, in this case, animals, out of materials that are responsible for its destruction…. Damaged bumpers, burnt garbage cans, tires, and appliances are just some of the objects that can be identified when you go into detail. They’re camouflaging the result of our habits with little ecological and social awareness.”
The overwhelming response to his ‘save the planet’ activism has attracted over 210,000 viewers to his Instagram page.
BORDALO II: Instagram
