American artist Harriete Estel Berman works with recycled tin to create whimsical environmental art delivering rich layers of social and cultural commentary. We caught up with Harriete to ask her a few questions about working with recycled tin and specifically about the significance of her brightly colored teacups and teapots.
Tell us about your teacups and teapots.
They are a series of 200 teacups plus two videos about our consumer society. The cups are a metaphor for our consumer society’s “Consuming Conversation”. Instead of having a cup of tea or coffee with a friend, we have now substituted shopping as social interaction and entertainment.
On the top of each cup are words or comments inspired by advertising. Each letter is cut from a tin can and tinted resin fills each cup to overflowing as if it were filled with "tea". A concealed rod holds each stack of cups together in a precarious position. Not unlike our current economy which has been severely impacted by overspending and consuming without regard for realistic finances.
Why do you use recycled elements in your artwork?
I started using recycled materials because I was a recycling evangelist. Way before curbside recycling was even available, I’d gather my newspapers, glass, plastic, cans etc. taking them to a recycling location. Magazines could be taken to the magazine distributor…this took effort, but it was also an effort to think about reducing excessive waste at that time.
A lot of my work is about our consumer society, overabundance and waste. This continues to weigh very heavily on my mind.
Where do you get your materials?
In 1988 my father and sister used to send me a lot of tins and vintage steel dollhouses. They lived on the East Coast with tons of junky flea markets and yard sales. Now I get tins from friends, friends of friends, and people in my exercise classes, even complete strangers or curators will send me a box of tins. Sometimes, people send me their tins cans because they have some emotional attachment, like their mother’s cookie tins. By sending me the tins, they know the cans will have another life.
What do recycled objects contribute to your artwork?
All objects carry a cultural history whether we are aware of this or not. The tin cans are printed with messages both conscious and subliminal. The words, colors, and patterns all reveal their place in time.
Are the unwanted items in your artwork a commentary on consumer values?
Actually, I don’t think of my materials as unwanted, but yes, many people would have thrown them away. Simply by removing these materials from the waste stream of our society, my aspiration is that people see these discarded materials with a new vision. Recycled and reused they adopt a new value.
Did you set out to make environmental art?
I just couldn’t stand the idea of buying new materials to make my artwork, making another “thing” in our overabundant society. In the beginning it was kind of embarrassing to make my artwork out of trash, now it represents a whole movement.
As environmentalism is becoming more popular have you seen an increase in interest in your art?
Yes, and no. The yes is that there are actually shows and books about using recycled materials and found objects. It is very nice to see this idea take on so much momentum.
The downside is that I really don’t want people to view my work as only about environmentalism or recycling. There are many other levels of content issues. The use of recycled materials is just an underlying foundation and other ideas are built on top of this initial premise.
Visit: http://www.harriete-estel-berman.info/
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