Students create Garbage Wall during Miami Art Week to bring environmental preservation awareness

Jacqueline Martinez/Contributing Writer

This year, the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark worked with the Aesthetics & Values class of FIU Honors College to construct a wall made with two tools: trash and cement, to raise awareness on issues surrounding environmental preservation in Miami.

Matta-Clark, who passed away in 1978, created his first Garbage Wall to emphasize the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. An influential artist of SoHo, New York, his initial Garbage Wall focused on the homelessness in his city. This year’s student-created Garbage Wall was exhibited during Miami Art Week in the Untitled Miami Beach art fair from Tuesday, Dec. 5 to Saturday, Dec. 9.

To build the wall, students in professor John Bailly’s Aesthetics & Values class collected marine debris from the mangroves of the Deering Estate.

“There were so many different kinds of trash, I looked for pieces to accentuate the wall the best,” said Natalie Brunelle, a senior majoring in biology. “I found sandals, ropes, and toys that were lost at sea. There was so much trash we couldn’t even get to because the mangroves grew over them. A bunch of nets and crates became embedded in them so it looked like it was part of the ecosystem. I even saw bottles housing different organisms like algae and barnacles. It made it hard to choose whether or not to take the trash out of an environment that fish have come to coexist with.”

But getting the trash out of the water paid off, according to Brunelle.

“The most satisfying part of it all was that I was able to go and feel at peace for doing a small part to help the ecosystem. If not for myself, then for the future,” she said.

Once the trash was collected, the students hauled it into convoys to take to the Untitled art fair on Miami Beach. The next step was sorting the trash into one thick, brick like wall. Barbara Sanchez, a junior majoring in sociology, was one of the students who assisted in this step.

“We used bottles and plastics as fillers for the inside of the wall. The outside trash are things unique to Miami like Corona bottles, sunscreen and even old maps of the Deering Estate,” Sanchez said. “We first sorted everything as bottles with bottles, glass with glass, and then rearranged it again to see what would look best on the outside.”

However, not all of the collected debris was used in the wall.

“One day was about sorting the garbage, another was for putting in cement to seal it. We had to dump things that absorb concrete like plastic bags, fabric and sneakers,” Sanchez said.

The entire wall, according to Sanchez, was based on garbage from the estate, except for one feature: a Jose Cuervo Gold bottle.

Jose Cuervo Gold was the artist’s favorite drink, Sanchez said, and the estate requested it be included to honor him.

For Natalie Mateo, a sophomore majoring in history, the final step of the wall’s creation was “harder than expected,” as the students had to chip away extra cement.

“We all got covered in cement dust,” she said. “Whole rocks of it fell down. It was difficult but fun at the same time. I wasn’t there for assorting the trash, so it was like a treasure hunt. I didn’t know what would be seen on the outside.”

However, while the wall’s creation was difficult, it didn’t take that long to finish, according to Mateo. Shifts were set until 7 p.m., she said, but the wall was actually completed by 2 p.m.

And while it was hard work, all three students agree it was worth building.

“I feel like it’s a great visual for people to see how much pollution and human waste is in the ocean,” Mateo said. “The ocean is huge but we managed to condense a part of it into a 10 foot wall.”

 

 

Featured Image courtesy of Professor John Bailly.