Connecting arts and sustainability
Recycled Artist in Residence (RAIR)’s mission is to challenge the perception of waste culture by providing a platform for artists at the intersection of art, industry and sustainability. Situated inside Revolution Recovery, a construction and demolition waste recycling company in northeast Philadelphia, RAIR offers artists studio space and access to more than 450 tons of materials per day. In addition to the residencies, RAIR works on special projects with museums, schools and communities across Philadelphia.
The Recycled Artist in Residency (RAIR) enables emerging, mid-career and established artists to work at the intersection of art, industry, and sustainability. Situated within Revolution Recovery, a construction and demolition waste recycling company, artists receive the opportunity to directly engage with industrial processes. The residents have access to over 450 tons of waste every day, which can be incorporated into their practice. Artists use the opportunity to develop their work whether in terms of formal sculpture and installation, film, photography, social and symbolic works, or in more activist research.
The residency provides an understanding of waste disposal systems and provides a means of sustainable material sourcing. Residents are provided with private studios and a workshop with basic wood and metal working equipment. Participants have access to Recovery Revolution’s 3.5-acre recycling site when work is not in operation and with guided assistance, artists can utilise industrial equipment, such as forklifts and excavators, within their practice. RAIR also offers stipends to residents, funded through a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
In addition to accommodating residents, the organisation hosts tours of the facility, classroom seminars, public events and exhibitions to highlight their multidisciplinary projects, merging art with industry and sustainability. Through these collaborations the potential of these materials can be broadened, facilitating members of the public to re-conceptualise their relationship with waste.
For Revolution Recovery the benefits of having the Recycled Artist in Residence programme operating within it are:
Artist in residence, Lily Cox-Richard working on her project
2016 resident Lily Cox-Richard’s project, Old Copper Futures, is concerned with urban mining and reclamation in the copper industry. RAIR provided an opportunity for Richard to refine and re-frame the work by following scrap copper as it moves through the waste stream and to create a more visible form through access to a metal baler enabling her to create three 1000 lbs bales of #2 scrap copper, and then to also make large scale drawings by taking rubbings from the baled copper.
2017 resident Maria Möller used her residency to realise a project called One Last Time, a photo-based series about mortality, joy, and second chances. Developing a ritual that compares life cycles with waste cycles, Maria sourced six objects from household clean-outs and paired each one with a person in her life who is or has been close to their own mortality through age or illness. Maria worked collaboratively with each participant to stage a photo shoot during which the discarded object could fulfil its purpose ‘one last time.’ After each photo shoot, the participant travelled to the recycling centre to return their object to the waste stream.
RAIR also undertakes various special projects in relation to the residency. These have included an exhibition entitled ‘Filthy Rich: Projects Made Possible by the Waste Stream’ and a research project with social scientists entitled ‘Digging Deeper: Field Studies Made Possible by the Waste Stream’. See the links below for more information on these projects.
RAIR was started by Fern Gookin, project manager at Revolution Recovery and board director of Delaware Valley Green Building Council, who developed a thesis on how art can create awareness around the topic of sustainability. The residency was established with assistance from Avi Golen (co-owner of Revolution Recovery) and Billy Blaise Dufala (artist and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts).
RAIR residencies are open to emerging, mid-career and established artists. Five artists per year have the opportunity to work with the resources at Revolution Recovery.
RAIR works with museums, schools and communities on special projects. For example, the exhibition Filthy Rich took place at the Galleries at Moore and RAIR created site-specific art work for Monument Lab.
RAIR has a jury (selection) panel for each annual cycle of residencies made up of artists, artist-educators and curators.
Recycled Artist in Residence developed through mutual interest. Artist Billy Dufula had been making art with waste and, having had the opportunity to see inside a waste processing facility, was interested in developing a partnership. Revolution Recovery became interested in the possibility of working with artists through Fern Gookin undertaking a master’s and writing a thesis on the subject, giving further impetus to the owners of Revolution Recovery.
Billy said in terms of lessons, tips and advice:
Firstly, the answer is ‘No’ if you don’t ask…
Secondly, it’s vital to know how to be ‘personable’ and how to communicate outside your own networks and peers;
Thirdly, do something to show what you do – when I first worked with Revolution Recovery, as the first artist in residence, I saw how bad their holiday card was and over a weekend I turned a waste moving machine into a weird sort of Rudolf and sleigh. On Monday morning I got dressed up as Santa and drove it around the yard. Everyone loved it. We made a card. They knew that I could do something.
It’s vital to building relationships – strong relationships mean being able to cope with major change. The commodities crash in 2015 was a very hard time but we weathered it together.
Descendants of trash pickers and connoisseurs of the found object, wearing overalls and hard hats, and “interrupting the waste stream,” the RAIR artists turn trash into artwork of one sort or another, and challenge our perceptions of the discarded.”
Michael Lieberman, ArtblogRevolution Recovery supports RAIR artists with studio space, access to workshops, support with documentation, and administration of the programme.
RAIR has secured support for stipends for artists on the residency programme from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
RAIR also accepts donations from organisations and the general public via its website and an annual ‘Trash Bash’ fundraising event.
Special Projects have received funding from a wide range of Foundations, City Government and other sources:
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