One man’s trash

What would you do with a huge surplus of vinyl records?

Make art with them, of course. (After picking out the good ones to keep.)

That was the original thought behind the creation of the Reused + Recycled = Art show, now on display at the University of Nevada, Reno. When the university received an “exceptionally large donation” of vinyl records a while back, Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center staff member and exhibit organizer Deanna Hearn says they had to come up with a way to use the records. Now, we’re not just talking about a few dusty crates filled with the classics—the donation contained more than 18,000 records that needed a home. So, with the donor’s permission, many were recycled into pieces of art.

“Having these records sparked having this exhibit,” Hearn says of the record collection. “We wondered, what can we do with these?”

At the time, Hearn had been tasked with developing sustainable programming at UNR. The idea of a collaborative, city-wide show came soon after the record art experiment, and the exhibit fuses unique three-dimensional creative pieces with science to help bring awareness to environmental issues.

“The idea is to get people talking about the issues surrounding sustainability using plastic and plastic waste,” she says, although many of the exhibit’s pieces are made from other materials. “It’s to help create the conversation to start taking more action and as a way to highlight how much waste there really is.”

As such, the exhibit is part of UNR’s “Summer of Sustainability,” which will last until September. It’s a collaborative summer-long effort coordinated by the UNR library department and the Office of Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Research: Academy for the Environment. Besides the exhibit, which visitors can peruse for free by visiting the library throughout the summer, there is also a Truckee River cleanup on July 12. Collaboration is a key part of the Summer of Sustainability’s mission, Hearn says.

Reused + Recycled = Art features an array of recycled art created by children, teens, college students and professional artists and researchers in Northern Nevada. More than 200 submissions were received from the region. Getting the high schools involved was important, says Hearn.

“High schoolers don’t often have places to showcase or submit their art,” she says.

The work in the exhibit ranges in materials. All materials were collected by the artists; some high school artists visited the Lockwood Landfill to gather items. A dress constructed out of records is on display in the library’s main floor. A “large cardboard Stegosaurus” is a contribution from the UNR art department, according to Hearn. A statue of a man is comprised of welded bike chains and metal scraps stands tall on the library’s bottom floor. And hanging strands of cut-up water and soda bottles transform sticky plastic into whimsical veils.

As a tie in with Artown, the exhibit also showcases the work of traveling artist and scientist Bonnie Monteleone from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Monteleone is a marine plastics debris researcher and the founder of the Plastic Ocean Project, which documents the waste found in oceans. Monteleone sources the materials for her art from more than 10,000 nautical miles of oceans worldwide. Monteleone will give a presentation about her work at the exhibit’s official opening on July 13.

At times, the exhibit is altogether thought-provoking, amusing, enjoyable and disheartening—especially after viewing pieces like a large jar full of broken plastic and glass, which Monteleone displays just as she found it in the ocean. Hearn hopes the art will give insight into bigger issues.

“It’s a fun show for people to see,” says Hearn. “But there’s a message, too.”