FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Kuros Zahedi
T: 360 398 734
E: kuros.zahedi@gmail.com
W: www.kuroszahedi.com
Ari Derfel
T: 510.859.9181
E: ari@terrainrestaurant.com
W: http://saveyourtrash.typepad.com/
Artist Finds aWay at Bumbershoot, Sept 4th-7th, 2009
Seattle, WA - Imagine saving one year’s worth of trash and letting an artist turn it into a work of art. What would it be? On September 4th at Bumbershoot Ari Derfel will experience for the first time seeing his trash on exhibit as a work of art. In 2007, Derfel’s project of saving every single piece of trash he produced for an entire year received national media attention and became the subject of a global conversation about consumerism, waste, recycling, self-awareness, and our individual and collective impact on the earth. Now, nearly two years later, the evolving power of this project can be experienced through the remarkable work of Kuros Zahedi, the man who has transformed Ari Derfel’s year of trash and recycling into a visionary piece of art.
“I did it to challenge myself – to change unconscious habit patterns and behaviors. Saving my trash and recycling was an active way to observe closely what I ate, how I spent money, what I did with my time. It was a visual diary, an objective, material account of a year of life.”
When Ari’s “waste” was handed over to Kuros, there were infinite possibilities and directions he could have gone. He lived with it for a long time, spoke with Ari, looked through every bit, counted it, weighed it, and thought. He wrote and sketched countless ideas. Ari and Kuros had agreed that every bit would be used - plastic wrappers, pounds of glass, old broken headphones, crumpled up aluminum foil and piles of paper - transforming this into a work of art presented a fascinating artistic challenge.
“As the material was prepared, it was clearly a window into the life of Ari as an individual personality, but then the paper, plastic, metal and glass also began to tell tales of their physical histories, revealing a complex nexus of civilization into which Ari, myself and everyone I know is knit. Where did this material come from? Where is it going? We normally designate trash as the lowest of low and throw it away, but Ari’s decision to “find away” for a whole year allowed me the opportunity to explore the powerful symbolism of turning it into a work of art.”
The trash was laboriously and totally transformed. It was crushed, cut, ground, pulped and reformed into a metaphoric narrative of our true potential. A host of human figures emerge from a menacing heap of trash, carrying armloads of waste to a dynamic and hopeful mural they are creating. They are humanity, working together, and Finding A Way to a beautiful world.
Finding Away makes its Northwest debut at Bumbershoot, Sept 5-7th in the Northwest Rooms as part of Kerfuffle (The Uneasy Relationship Between Humanity and the Environment), a multi-faceted multimedia show with works that explore waste, regrowth, and sustainability. On September 4th, from 12.00pm to 7.00pm the exhibit is FREE and open to the public as part of the Mayor’s Art Awards celebrations at the Seattle Center.
In November Finding Away moves to San Francisco where it will be the featured exhibit for the Green Festival, November 13-15th, 2009.
Contact:
Kuros Zahedi
T: 360 398 734
E: kuros.zahedi@gmail.com
W: www.kuroszahedi.com
Ari Derfel
T: 510.859.9181
E: ari@terrainrestaurant.com
W: http://saveyourtrash.typepad.com/
Artist Finds aWay at Bumbershoot, Sept 4th-7th, 2009
Seattle, WA - Imagine saving one year’s worth of trash and letting an artist turn it into a work of art. What would it be? On September 4th at Bumbershoot Ari Derfel will experience for the first time seeing his trash on exhibit as a work of art. In 2007, Derfel’s project of saving every single piece of trash he produced for an entire year received national media attention and became the subject of a global conversation about consumerism, waste, recycling, self-awareness, and our individual and collective impact on the earth. Now, nearly two years later, the evolving power of this project can be experienced through the remarkable work of Kuros Zahedi, the man who has transformed Ari Derfel’s year of trash and recycling into a visionary piece of art.
“I did it to challenge myself – to change unconscious habit patterns and behaviors. Saving my trash and recycling was an active way to observe closely what I ate, how I spent money, what I did with my time. It was a visual diary, an objective, material account of a year of life.”
When Ari’s “waste” was handed over to Kuros, there were infinite possibilities and directions he could have gone. He lived with it for a long time, spoke with Ari, looked through every bit, counted it, weighed it, and thought. He wrote and sketched countless ideas. Ari and Kuros had agreed that every bit would be used - plastic wrappers, pounds of glass, old broken headphones, crumpled up aluminum foil and piles of paper - transforming this into a work of art presented a fascinating artistic challenge.
“As the material was prepared, it was clearly a window into the life of Ari as an individual personality, but then the paper, plastic, metal and glass also began to tell tales of their physical histories, revealing a complex nexus of civilization into which Ari, myself and everyone I know is knit. Where did this material come from? Where is it going? We normally designate trash as the lowest of low and throw it away, but Ari’s decision to “find away” for a whole year allowed me the opportunity to explore the powerful symbolism of turning it into a work of art.”
The trash was laboriously and totally transformed. It was crushed, cut, ground, pulped and reformed into a metaphoric narrative of our true potential. A host of human figures emerge from a menacing heap of trash, carrying armloads of waste to a dynamic and hopeful mural they are creating. They are humanity, working together, and Finding A Way to a beautiful world.
Finding Away makes its Northwest debut at Bumbershoot, Sept 5-7th in the Northwest Rooms as part of Kerfuffle (The Uneasy Relationship Between Humanity and the Environment), a multi-faceted multimedia show with works that explore waste, regrowth, and sustainability. On September 4th, from 12.00pm to 7.00pm the exhibit is FREE and open to the public as part of the Mayor’s Art Awards celebrations at the Seattle Center.
In November Finding Away moves to San Francisco where it will be the featured exhibit for the Green Festival, November 13-15th, 2009.
More images available upon request.
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