Is your garbage in the Garbage Wall?
November 23rd, 2009
During my first shift as a Gallery Assistant at the Pulitzer, I rotated into the Entrance Gallery and was confronted by Garbage Wall.
After spending the last month and a half collecting this garbage from around St. Louis, I stood there and realized how little time I had spent with the finished piece.
My eyes scanned over the objects in the wall, and I recognized all of them! At the sight of each piece of garbage, I was taken back to a day in the collection process. I spotted the section of a brick wall that students at Wash U found during our neighborhood clean-up, caution tape that was left in a donation box in the art room at Metro High School, and shoes collected from a local thrift store’s dumpster. I remembered touching each object (with gloves of course) as I moved it from a school, curb, or dumpster, into my truck bed, and finally into the workshop where Garbage Wall was constructed. I felt lucky to have had this experience that connected me to the piece in a very unique and exciting way.
