Making Visible Ruin Sites and Discarded Materials
Garbage, in western culture, is constructed to be marginalized if not also to be rendered completely invisible. Ideological systems and institutional structures both seek to separate humans from garbage by establishing that what is “bad” should be removed from sight. Philosopher Slavoj Zizek notes that society's obsession with cleanliness and order has effectively removed dirt and waste from conscious attention, thus contributing to the denial of the current ecological crisis.
Artworks by Sandra Granite Van Ruymbeke, challenge the conventional notion of garbage by conducting her practice at the back end and derelict corners of urban life. Her research was located at “wasteland” architectural sites -- a city dump and a scrap metal depot -- in a city that is post-industrial but pre-gentrification. Her multi-media installations of photography, sculpture and video make visible these ruined sites and discarded materials. In her meditative video Treasure Scrap (2016), for example, the camera moves slowly in and out of a heap of metal scrap, effectively pulling the viewer into a close examination of alluring golden objects dispersed amongst the refuse. The golden objects are also garbage, however -- items she has transformed into things of aesthetic value by the application of gold leaf. Using a centuries-old technique from art history, garbage becomes invested with curious importance. Van Ruymbeke also employs the hyper-visibility of photography to reframe waste from the city dump. These images immerse viewers in abstract vistas that blur the line between art and trash by alluding to abstract expressionism and artists such as Pollock and De Kooning. Ultimately, Van Ruymbeke’s work challenges the traditional definition of garbage and opens new possibilities for neglected sites and abjected materials.
Research Thesis Paper - Poetics of Trash