Fuller Projects create green art from local trash

Between the fast-food wrappers, splintered plywood and battered baseball gloves, the latest Fuller Projects exhibit could be labeled as trash — and proudly so.

On Friday night, the exhibit presented “Treasure Hunting,” a compilation of students’ projects from the class U401: “Working with Trash and Other Odd Materials.”

As people filed in and out of the small room in the McCalla School, Reinhold Engberding, class professor and member of the Program for International Visiting Artists, looked on.

Engberding explained that though the idea for the class was not an environmental or political stance for him personally, he still felt it was crucial that reused material be seen with significance.

“It’s about changing your view on ‘trash,’” he said. “By working with the materials, you put more value into them. They have their own history, too.”

For some of his students, the class was revolutionary in more ways than one.

Laura Ruchti enrolled in the class, her first formal art class in 30 years. Now, “Treasure Hunting” is also the first time her work has been in an exhibit.

Ruchti said she liked the idea of using materials in which their “energy was already used, instead of reaping the earth.” She said the environment is very important to her.

However, reusing came at a price.

“Sometimes it was hard because the litter was very dirty,” Ruchti said. “There would be hair on things and alcohol bottles that people had been drinking. I didn’t wear gloves because I need to feel it. I can’t be separated from the material.”

After her first piece, Ruchti made some improvements.

“Eventually, I learned how to pick better trash,” she said, laughing.

Her featured project, appropriately titled as “Litterrose,” was composed of such as torn-up Sprite boxes and soiled fabric. These materials were then wrapped around one another to mimic the petals of a rose, with loose yet purposeful angles.

Other showcased items included a hanging collage of old grocery bags, all of which were tightly woven together. Pictures were then hung on top of the bags. The artist, Jessica Shafer, stated in the description the attraction of “opposing precious memories with old plastic bags.”

Other works also focused on contrasting opposite ideas.

A piece by Nikki White showcased the competing ideals of food and beauty in American culture.

Her work took the shape of a cupcake, with the base made out of old magazine cutouts, including one of Megan Fox, and was then topped with the “icing” of different food wrappers. The final touch was a crumpled yellow wrapper of a McDonald’s McChicken sandwich.

Graduate student Payson McNett was one of many onlookers of the exhibit that night. He said he felt a personal interest in it, as it mirrored his own work.

McNett has gathered a variety of what-would-have-been wasted materials such as cast-iron from an engine plant or plywood from a crate-building company. These “leftovers,” he stated, were the entire groundwork for his thesis.

“It’s the concept of reclaiming,” McNett said. “You find something discarded, and then you make it beautiful. My grandfather used to say, ‘One man’s trash, another man’s treasure.’ This exhibit exemplifies that.”