Live at the Dump: Talking Trash with Tom Sachs and Nato Thompson
Talking Trash invited sculptor Tom Sachs and Creative Time artistic director Nato Thompson—two exciting and original voices in contemporary arts— to use the dump as a platform for discourse about material sourcing, sustainable practices, and the dual identity of "found materials" as trash and as treasure. The talk was followed by a hot dog hangout (bbq) in the yard at RAIR.
Tom Sachs is an artist known for his use of bricolage techniques: hobbling together everyday materials like plywood, foam core, duct tape and hot glue with collected, re-purposed and re-signified objects, Sachs fabricates playful sculptures and installations that are obsessively crafted yet show evidence of the history of their raw materials, and of the artist's labor. Prominent examples include Hasselblad (2009), Apollo LEM (2007), Chabako- tea utensils (2015).
Nato Thompson leads the commission and presentation of ambitious public art projects by Creative Time — an arts organization based in New York City that is guided by three core values: that art matters, that artists’ voices are important in shaping society, and that public spaces are places for creative and free expression. Acclaimed Creative Time projects in recent years include Tribute in Light, the twin beacons of light that illuminated lower Manhattan six months after 9/11, Paul Chan’s production of Waiting for Godot in New Orleans, and the recent Fly By Night performance by Duke Riley.
"Tom has been working with junk for a long time now. He is obsessive with it. He adores it. And he has done some pretty phenomenal things with it. It will be amazing to sit in a pile of (beautiful) trash and talk with him!" -Nato Thompson
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