PET pets at Guchifritos Art Gallery

While exploring the city with the UD team, we ventured into the Essex Street Market and stopped into the Guchifritos Art Gallery, where the work of artist Miwa Koizumi immediately caught our attention. The work, plastic water bottles artfully cut, melted and reconfigured into realistic looking jellyfish seemed to float in mid air in the small corner of the contemporary art gallery. This project is called PET pets where the former PET stands for (polyethylene terephthalate) the type of recyclable plastic the water bottles are made out of. The artist, Koizumi, writes on her website, "I love the idea of using liquid containers to make water animals. Contained/containing, trash/not-trash, like the jellyfish or anemone: living/non-living."

These days trash is not just treasure but art and these jellyfish bring out the true beauty of the plastic water bottle. If you haven't been to the Essex Street Market check it out the next time you're in the Lower East Side. 

Urban Homesteading Project (UHP)

Great performance piece at the 2008 Figment Festival involving used plastic bottles. From the Emergence - Creative Pioneers in Uncharted Territory show. Urban Homesteading Project (UHP) by Francisca Caporali, Laura Grace Chipley, Pilar Ortiz.

Quoted from the site.
"Concept: Over nine weeks, the structure will be gradually insulated with salvaged plastic bottles, re-purposed as receptacles for organic life. Within each bottle, living plants are cultivated in either soil or water.The dialogue and interaction initiated through the construction of the homestead in tandem with planting, cultivating, and harvesting is integral to sustainability. The collaboration between artists and audience patterns a simple model of a community.

Participate: Viewers are invited to donate plastic bottles and participate in the planting process. At the end of the summer, the wood skeleton will be recycled and the plants will be given away; transplanted to a new place in which to grow roots and emerge."

A Packaged Past

Classic packaging on display in a store on the West Village. As a designer its fascinating to look at the art and typography from another time period. As a consumer it's amazing what nostalgic memories packaging can stir from the past.

Happiness seeing packaging of your favorite toy or board game. Reminiscing on your favorite tv show. movie or cartoon when looking at an old lunch box. In this case the popcorn box evoked a flashback from grade school. Friday movie day! I can remember the smell of the buttery popcorn in the air as it was poured into the box just before the movie started.

Second life for a packaging not only when recycling but when it takes you down memory lane.

It's All in the Cards

In the spirit of UnwrappedDesign, do it yourself and second life the card stock of the UD business cards will be from discarded packaging boxes. A photo recap of the design and production process at the studio.

sustainable nyc

Exploring the East Village on the weekend I came upon sustainable nyc, A shop full of eco friendly products and packaging. Additionally the store offers EcoWorkshops, creative classes breathing second life into packaging.

Sustainable NYC
147 Ave A (9th St)
(212)254.5400

Second Life Planters Found in Williamsburg

Dave Herman, founder of The City Reliquary organized small community gardens in large tires and claw-foot bathtubs on the Williamsburg sidewalks. He helped to bring his neighborhood together by making it more colorful, reusing unsuspecting everyday items and turned them into beautiful street gardens. Check out The City Reliquary's store/museum on Metropolitan, and find out about their bicycle fetish @ http://www.cityreliquary.org 

Look at what I found in the Subway. The MTA is showing all New Yorkers how to reuse and recycle packaging. Their approach may be subtle but it got my attention. This MTA vace is located between the G and the E/V @ Court Sq. and 23rd St.-Ely Ave.

This barbecue has been transformed into a unique front porch planter. It always catches my eye and makes me stop to look at the reflector covered Jesus statute standing next to it. 

I passed this street sign planter and needed to read it's caption. "Not Too Much Water Please," says the little cartoon man. This can, once filled with coffee or fruit cocktail, has been recycle and turned into a creative urban planter.