Boris Bally Interview

Transit Chairs by Boris Bally

Boris Bally, an award-winning, innovative artist, takes recycled street signs and transforms them into highly-coveted contemporary furniture and art objects. He has been the recipient of numerous art awards and his work is exhibited in public collections around the world including The Victoria and Albert Museum, Renwick Gallery and Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. We interrupted his family vacation in Florida to ask Boris a few questions about his recycled furniture and art objects.

What materials are you working with?

I have been using recycled golf tees, champagne and wine corks, aluminum signs, weapon parts —anything that I can scrounge that shows potential to be a new material in its second life, in a design I can dream-up.

Where do you get your materials?

Acquiring the scrap aluminum traffic signs, used in this work, involves nurturing relationships with officials of various transportation and public works and signage departments, sign-making companies and forward-thinking, environmentally conscious scrap-dealers willing to deal with a picky artist.

All signs used to make my art and products are purchased legally as scrap aluminum. Often I pay much more than the current rate, depending on the circumstances. Because I am at the mercy of what is deemed ‘scrap’ by the road crews, it is extremely rare to find specialty signs with wonderful images. I may find some one time and then never another like it.

Transit Chair by Boris Bally.

How do you select the signs?

The aluminum scrap used in all phases of this project goes through a series of rigorous selection processes. Initially, about one in ten signs are handpicked for material thickness, finish (painted or coated, signs all have embedded glass particles to reflect the light from headlamps), image, graphics, color and patina. As an example, my last scrap haul involved single-handedly ‘sifting’ through 20,000 pounds of boxed and palletted signs of varying size. Once selected, I re-pallette my ‘take’ and a forklift scoops the palletts into my rented truck. I average about five major gathering trips per year, each yielding over 2000 pounds. That is almost five tons, annually.

Please describe the process of making one of your chairs?

My work is all HUMANUFACTURED® in my Providence, RI Studio.

Once arriving back at my studio, I unload the truck, often with the help of my assistants. The signs are organized according to size, image and color. Some more abundant signs go into external storage and some are immediately cut into pieces for furniture and object making. First the larger pieces, chair backs, seats and platter circles, are cut. The scrap created from this initial cutting is then used to make smaller and smaller pieces. Chair legs, trays, light switch plates, brooches…the smallest piece made is the key fob. It is a lesson learned from our own native American culture: “Using all parts of the Bison.”

After a piece has been laid out, hand-sawed and sanded, all the edges are filed, bends carefully completed and holes drilled. Finally, each piece is vigorously scrubbed with a sanitizing soap cocktail to remove road grime, grease and undesirable marks. Once a piece has been completed a sealer is rubbed-in to preserve the weathered finish. The components are re-assembled and touched-up.

All this hard work yields the radiant jewels of an urban enamel luster. Appropriated and then manipulated and changed by me, while still subtly boasting its former life in the traditional urban world.

When did you start working in this medium?

I have been working metal since I was 13, first making skateboards, then jewelry and eventually furnishings and furniture. The traffic signs I have been exploring since 1990 or before, first as a raw material, and then incorporating the graphics.

Many have attempted to take my idea, to profit from my original idea, but they usually give up quickly because it is so difficult or they have taken my idea so completely that they have infringed on a patent/copyright of mine and are easily persuaded to cease. In some cases, I have asked would be imposters to please come up with their own ideas, perhaps their own 'angles' on my discovery. It upsets me how comfortable so many feel asking me for my sources, for my secrets, things that have taken me all my life to develop and perfect.

What are the challenges working with reclaimed materials?

These materials are not intended to be re-fabricated so they are un-yielding, often tempered to stay flat, they are un-uniform, and so really do require human handwork.

What are the rewards of working with reclaimed materials?

At first I started using these materials merely to address the challenge of 'creating something precious' from something common. Gold is easy to 'make sexy.' Trash is a true challenge to transform. I grew up with family expectations of being resourceful and not wasteful. I am happy that so many people in this country are finally embracing the green philosophy.