Don’t throw your waste; it can be turned into art
Realizing the ‘value’ of waste was behind the “Waste To Art” exhibit organised by the Colombo Hippie Market and three collaborating universities at the Public Library recently. The exhibition held for the first time on October 6 and 7 drew an interested crowd.
The exhibition was a collaboration between the Colombo Hippie Market(CHM ) and the Colombo, Jaffna and Sri Jayewardenapura universities.
The CHM operates on two underlying concepts; one to encourage a plant-based lifestyle and secondly, to build up a community that will find their own sustainable methods of waste management. The dedicated CHM team has been holding awareness programmes on up-cycling and environmental responsibility in schools islandwide.
“It is important to realize the true value of trash in finding solutions to the garbage problem,”said Dr. Randika Jayasinghe of the Department of Engineering Technology, Sri Jayawardenapura University.
In answer to a newspaper advertisement calling for submissions of art made from waste, 110 applications had been received showing the team that indeed quite a lot of people were interested in finding unconventional solutions to the waste problem. Around 70 exhibits were finally exhibited drawn from artists from all corners of the island from Jaffna to Galle, including students.
Some of the interesting exhibits at ‘Waste to Art’. Pix by Sameera Weerasekera
A walk around revealed some unusual exhibits. We observed a romantic picture of a Victorian couple, the lady’s flowing skirt done in syringe bottle caps, on a background of old newsprint made by K.L.S. Silva.
A.P. Kalyanawansa had created a kitchen stool from up-cycled rice cookers, discarded signboards and fabric cut-offs while S. N. Rajasinghe’s sculptures made from melted plastic were almost lifelike in appearance, particularly his showpiece of street performers. Also, notable was a sculpture of Jesus made from melted plastic.
Next time you don’t know where to throw your old electronics, plastics , the team at the Hippie Market will be happy to connect you with the artists.
Most of the artists were people who had day jobs, but had the creative mindset to come up with artistic creations in their spare time. The Colombo Hippie Market can be contacted on Facebook and Instagram.