Artist Dumpster-dives for art

Austin Redwood often gets his food and art supplies completely free and without setting foot in… Austin Redwood often gets his food and art supplies completely free and without setting foot in a store. He does it by using a skill he’s honed over years of practice — Dumpster diving.

“When I get something from a Dumpster, it gets meaning back … the people who grew it, the people who made it, their work is kind of made meaningful to me, I appreciate it more,” the artist and recent Carnegie Mellon University graduate said.

Redwood isn’t as unusual as you might think. He’s part of a growing movement of people who are finding creative ways to recycle items many would deem garbage.

Wandering through the “DIY: A Revolution in Handicrafts” exhibit in the Society for Contemporary Craft, peaking out from the corner of Smallman and 21st streets, an explorer’s eyes are met with a brightly colored and incredibly varied bevy of crafts. In their works ranging from bikes made out of bamboo to coffee cups that comment on war, violence and U.S. involvement, these creators have combined usefulness and art to make an exhibit that’s layered in meaning.

“The idea that these people are interested in is a new sense of capitalism, where people can control what they buy, wear, eat,” said Kate Lydon, director of exhibitions for the society.

Each piece has its own meaning. Redwood’s “Dumponaut” is what he describes as an “urban Winnebago”. It’s a Dumpster that has been converted to include seating and accommodations for a person to live in.

“[I wanted to prove that I] could make something that I could live in on the street out of things people have thrown away,” Redwood said.

The Tugboat Printshop, located in Lawrenceville, is the partnership of Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth. Their piece is a brightly colored map of the United States that hangs next to several large, hand-carved wooden blocks, still stained with the ink colors that were used in the printing process. The piece was originally used in the Manifest Hope: DC show in 2009.

“We wanted to portray a positive, uplifting view of the country and a pioneering spirit,” Roden said.

Layered over top of these individual meanings is the show’s overall message about making things yourself and having an awareness of where products come from. Harkening back to an era of building furniture from old wood and picking tomatoes from your own garden, the DIY movement is reclaiming the skills we’ve lost in our big business consumerist culture.

“Once you start wondering about where your food comes from, you start wondering about who’s harvesting your food, and then there’s the question of your own health as related to what you eat,” Roden said.

The statement is often more important than just the piece itself. For example, Mark Newport, who served in the firstPersian Gulf War, crafted a series of cups with images depicting opinions of war. If you circle the display, you’ll notice broken cups positioned among those intact. When the cups arrived at the gallery, some had been jostled in the move. When the Society for Contemporary Craft asked Newport what he wanted to do with them, he opted to have them displayed, citing the military mantra that you’d never leave a man behind.

“I think it’s extra-accessible work that is not necessarily based in expertise. Some of it is, but I think it’s connected to ideas that are very current … and I think the work is just fun,” Lydon said.

Redwood describes this DIY movement as less about organization and more about people who have all begun making their own things and sharing their ideas about it. He explains that you can often find instructions for building things on the Internet and many times the materials are readily at your disposal. One night, armed with a milk crate and speakers he’d found dumpster diving, Redwood put together a boombox to attach to his bike.

“Doing it yourself, you have all these different tools at your disposal, so you can get yourself away from being a specialist and say you’re a Jack of all trades,” Redwood said.

At its roots, the DIY movement is an effort to learn where things come from and how to make them. Artists like Redwood, Roden and Lueth don’t just make crafts and DIY their art, the do-it-yourself movement is an integral part of their lives. They encourage others to do the same by realizing they have the capacity to reuse, recycle and reclaim what would otherwise be garbage and understanding  the impact doing so can make. And that’s what the exhibit really conveys.

“I highly recommend just tinkering with stuff because you learn so much about it and you learn a lot about yourself too,” Redwood said. “[Doing it yourself] does have the ability to make a difference and not in a cheesy way.”