Art objects and furniture made from man-made, non-recyclable trash bring disposed items back to use in a new context.
Collaborators: Art, Art History & Visual Studies
Duke student Adair Jones (Class of 2019) will use the Ruby’s painting studio to support her senior visual arts thesis.
Her project, CYCLIC, will result in a series of objects focused on human material consumption and its environmental impact. Much of the project’s conceptual formation is owed to the work of Andy Goldsworthy, a land artist who uses found materials in the environment (leaves, twigs, stones, soils, water, etc.) to create sculpture and temporary site-specific art.
CYCLIC will also use found objects from the environment to create sculpture—but Jones will collect non-recyclable, non-compostable, man-made materials discarded by humans. Unfortunately, this material waste environment will continue to grow without serious intervention. In dialog with the genre of land and environmental art, CYCLIC highlights the consequences of consumption and waste.
“As of now, when we throw an item away in our personal trash cans, we believe in its total termination. The truth is that many of these items continue to exist and to accumulate. My project seeks to insert these items back into our spaces, expecting that at some point in time that they will return to the wastelands of disposables and trash—or come full circle by returning to our living spaces through future form of reclamation or recycling.”—Adair Jones
Jones received a Benenson Award in the Arts to support this project.
Jones in the Ruby’s painting and drawing studio, in the first piece made for CYCLIC, her senior project
Chair made from reclaimed twine, metal tubing and plastic bags for CYCLIC
Chair made from reclaimed twine, metal tubing and plastic bags for CYCLIC
Making a “conversation sofa” from reclaimed materials for CYCLIC
Making a “conversation sofa” from reclaimed materials for CYCLIC
Photos by Robert Zimmerman
Duke students might know one of Adair Jones’s (Class of 2019) designs without even realizing it—she is behind the retro-inspired Mural Durham: Satellite Park poster, the past two Brickside Music Festival Posters, and many of Duke Coffeehouse’s concert flyers. While at Duke, Adair has made a point to be involved with as many arts initiatives as possible. She is double majoring in Art History and Visual Studies and is a member of the Nasher MUSE student advisory council and the first cohort of Creative Arts Student Teams (CASTs) for the Rubenstein Arts Center.
