Garbage
2013 — 2014
The series starts from a simple observation: waste turns up where you least expect it — a worn-out sofa abandoned at a street corner, a dumpster by a main thoroughfare, a car suddenly repurposed as a dumping spot.
The series starts from a simple observation: waste turns up where you least expect it — a worn-out sofa abandoned at a street corner, a dumpster by a main thoroughfare, a car suddenly repurposed as a dumping spot. Documentation meant months of photographing the city, resulting in over 200 images of bins, dumpsters and makeshift dumps created spontaneously by residents in spaces never meant for that purpose. From this material I selected seven urban scenes, each becoming a standalone painting — oil on canvas, 150x93 cm, composed according to the golden ratio, with a palette restricted to greys and black-and-white tones.
Each painting captures a contrast: the expected architectural grandeur or urban order, confronted with the misplaced presence of waste. The human figure is absent from every composition, yet its trace remains everywhere — in what is chosen to be discarded, where, and how. The series does not propose a verdict on the phenomenon; it leaves the question open to the viewer, as an observation demanding a choice rather than a solution.
Visually, the series remains an academic study — drawing, form, value, composition — built on simultaneous contrast and chiaroscuro.
Works in Series
- Garbage II2014 · 93 × 150 cm
- National Garbage2014 · 150 × 93 cm
- Garbage in the Street2014 · 150 × 93 cm
- Night Recycle Bin2014 · 93 × 150 cm
- Sofa Garbage2014 · 150 × 93 cm
- Ghetto Garbage2014 · 150 × 93 cm
- Golden Garbage2014 · 150 × 93 cm
- Garbage Columns2014 · 150 × 93 cm
- Night Garbage2014 · 150 × 100 cm