Wizer turns garbage into art

Wizer turns garbage into art

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Most people perceive garbage as something with many unpleasant
attributes and something that they must get rid of as soon as
possible.

Yet, with creativity and concern for the environment, trash
can be turned into functional, fashionable consumer items or
artistic works of art.

That is what the U.S.-born artist/environmentalist Ann Wizer,
53, is trying to show to the community here through her solo
exhibition called Soapopera, which will be on until March 27 at
the Cemeti Art House.

Opened on March 8, the exhibition displays her latest works,
which are mostly furniture of contemporary design, made of
packaging waste from various personal care and household products
ranging from toothpastes to fabric softeners.

There also many fashionable bags, of different designs
and sizes, made of the same materials.

"I just want to show people that we have very huge, huge
problems regarding useless waste and I want to offer a simple
solution to it," Wizer, who has been living and working in
Jakarta since 2000, told The Jakarta Post after the opening
ceremony last week.

Among the pieces on display, there is the spilled milk II
2002 and spilled milk III 2002, chairs and an ottomans. The first
is made of polypropylene and Capri-Sonne drink packages, while
the later is made of polypropylene and toothpaste tubes.

Other furniture on display, a set of chair and low table,
includes chipped tooth 2002 (made of polypropylene, toothpaste
tubes and Capri-Sonne packages), riverbed 2002 (polypropylene and
Capri-Sonne packages), and executive decision 2004
(polypropylene, toothpaste tubes and Capri-Sonne packages).

Flotsam and jetsam 2004 is a chair and an ottoman, which are
unusually tall and dominated by soft red colors. It is probably
the most eye-catching piece on display.

Another interesting work exhibited is what she calls how can I
get your attention? 2005. It's an installation work featuring
golf bags 90 centimeters high and 30 centimeters in diameter each
made of packaging waste by the largest manufacturers of
household products in Indonesia.

Claiming to have been working with garbage since she was in
the Philippines -- she lived there for 10 years -- Wizer said
that waste problems are the problems of the government, community
and corporations.

"We produce more and more and more waste all the time but have
no big consideration on how to get rid of it," said Wizer, who is
a graduate of several schools including the California College of
Arts and Crafts (in Oakland), the Aegean School of Fine Arts
(Paros, Greece), and Sogetsu Kaikan (Tokyo, Japan).

Wizer says that every year some 80,000 tons of flexible
plastic packaging is produced while some 50,000 to 60,000 tons of
polypropylene is also manufactured in Indonesia.

"This, to me, is a tragedy. It's not just ruining the land,
the air and the water, but also destroying the people's health,"
she said.

"This (packaging) waste is strong, durable and indestructible.
So we have to use it up again. We can make new products from
consumer waste. That is the main idea of this project," she
said.

Soapopera itself, according to Wizer, is a summary of an
ongoing project she started in February 2002 in Jakarta, which
she named the XSProject.

Through the project, she buys packaging waste from scavengers
and have other poor people in need of jobs make new products out
of the tossed-out items. To do so, she cooperates with local
community foundations.

Thanks to the project, she says, over 250 poor families,
including scavengers, benefit from it, either by selling
packaging waste or producing new products from the waste. They
are those involved in the works in Jakarta, which is supervised
by Yayasan XSProject Reguna Kreasi -- one that she founded for
the project.

For that, some Rp 4 million to Rp 5 million is spent a month
by Reguna Kreasi to buy the garbage from a single community of
scavengers in Jakarta.

Wizer started a similar project in Yogyakarta in October 2004
where she embraced workers and scavengers from the Pambudhi
Foundation.

With the exception of the furniture and installation works
that Wizer prepared and created at her studio in Jakarta, all the
products made of the packaging waste exhibited in Cemeti were
produced at Yayasan Pambudhi.

"We hope through the exhibition we will be able to attract
local businesses in Yogyakarta to support the foundation and
continue the project," said Wizer.

After all she has done with the waste from companies and even
government offices, still there is little appreciation given to
her either in the form of support or attention.

She added that "many companies and other groups take the
concept of the project, disregard the intention, and use the
programs and project designs for their own commercial promotion."