Art and Protest
What is trash, really? For London-based, Barcelona-born artist Francisco de Pájaro—better known as “Art Is Trash”—waste isn’t just garbage. It’s material already present in the world, waiting to be transformed. His urban interventions, often made from discarded objects and garbage bags piled on city sidewalks, are grotesque, playful, and disturbingly human. They are fleeting gestures—gone with the next visit from the cleaning services—but they leave behind questions that linger.
Among those questions: what happens to all the inorganic waste that doesn’t break down?
A Plastic Crisis
Yes, we’re talking about plastic.
Have you ever noticed just how many plastic items you use—or toss—every single day? This week marks the #PlasticBoycott campaign, and while many of us have long been trying to cut back, this initiative hopes to reach those who haven’t yet considered the issue at all. Yet again, consumers shoulder the blame, while petrochemical giants and global brands like Coca-Cola and Nestlé—some of the world’s top plastic polluters—remain largely unaccountable. Supermarkets and megastores, packed with plastic packaging, offer little chance to make eco-friendly choices.
The result? A suffocating accumulation of man-made waste and its impact on our shared home: the planet. The images we see now in the media are both surreal and apocalyptic. Governments and corporations feign ignorance or, at best, offer weak gestures of action. The emergency is real. And it’s everywhere—in the oceans, the skies, the rain, even in the air we breathe.
From Wonder to Woe
Once celebrated for its durability and low cost, plastic has become a symbol of environmental failure. Since its postwar boom in the 1950s, it has infiltrated every aspect of modern life—and every corner of the Earth. Microplastics are now found in sea trenches, polar ice, our own bloodstreams. And we’ve proven dangerously inept at managing its waste.
So now the question becomes: what do we do with the plastic that’s already here?
Artists across the world are taking on that question—by reclaiming, transforming, and reimagining plastic waste through art. Their work isn’t just visual—it’s political, poetic, and profoundly urgent.
Artists Who Transform Trash into Testimony
Francisco de Pájaro – “Art Is Trash”
By working with garbage found on the street, Francisco creates momentary sculptures that critique consumerism and societal decay. His grotesque figures—often made from real waste—force us to confront what we throw away and why.
Chris Jordan – Albatross
In Albatross, Jordan documents the horrifying reality of birds dying from plastic ingestion on Midway Atoll. The project, which began in 2008, culminated in a haunting film (see: albatrossthefilm.com). His message: "Like the albatross, we’re dying from our own waste.”
Mandy Barker
This award-winning British photographer collects ocean plastic and arranges it into visually compelling, shocking images. From Hong Kong Soup (made from thousands of lighters) to Penalty (plastic soccer balls from 144 beaches), her work pairs beauty with bitter truth.
“I want my images to first attract the viewer—then confront them with the ugly facts.”
Alejandro Durán – Washed Up
Using plastic waste from 58 countries found along the coast of Mexico’s Sian Ka’an reserve, Durán crafts site-specific installations where plastic mimics nature—algae, roots, rivers—highlighting the infiltration of plastic into the environment.
Ifeoma Anyaeji – Plasto-Art
Nigerian artist Ifeoma Anyaeji transforms discarded plastic bags using traditional hair-threading techniques. She calls this practice “plasto-yarning”—a fusion of cultural preservation and environmental consciousness.
“To most, plastic is waste. To me, it's a valuable, creative resource.”
Freya Jobbins
Inspired by Archimboldo, Jobbins assembles human faces and bodies from discarded plastic toys. Her works, while humorous at first glance, explore identity, consumption, and childhood nostalgia through a darker lens.
Gilles Cenazandotti
The French artist creates sculptural animal figures from plastic debris collected on beaches, hoping to spark awareness about wildlife’s fragility and the sci-fi-like future we’re drifting toward.
Hiroshi Fuji
In Jurassic Plastic, Fuji uses over 50,000 plastic toys to create large-scale installations that invite children and adults alike to engage with the material. His “Kaekko” project allows kids to swap toys and rethink consumer culture through play.
María José Arceo
The Galician artist has spent years collecting plastic waste from rivers and oceans, particularly the Thames. Her works become “time capsules” that question our footprint, memory, and collective future. One of her standout installations, Plástico a Mareas, was recently shown at the Cidade da Cultura in Galicia.
Aurora Robson – Project Vortex
Canadian-American artist Robson intercepts plastic waste before it enters oceans, welding it into fluid, organic sculptures. She’s also an educator, having developed a university course titled Sculpture + Intercepting Waste Stream to inspire the next generation of conscious creators.
Trash, Transformed: More Than Just Art
These artists don’t just decorate—they disrupt. They intercept plastic before it pollutes ecosystems and turn it into something meaningful, even beautiful. They expose the madness of a system built on consumption and disposability. And they remind us that what we throw away never really disappears—it comes back, as haunting truths and, sometimes, as unexpected masterpieces.
So, what is trash?
Maybe it’s not a thing, but an attitude. And these artists are here to change it.
🎥 Recommended: Plastic Planet (2009)
If you’re still unsure about the dangers of plastic waste—for your health and for the planet—watch the eye-opening documentary Plastic Planet. It remains one of the most essential films about the modern environmental crisis.
📌 Written by La Mirada del Mamut
Visual artist, photographer, and passionate environmentalist. This article stems from a growing artistic obsession with the deterioration of our ecosystems—especially through plastic—and how creative expression can be part of the solution.
