In some way all artists working in Detritus Art must tip their hats towards Marcel Duchamp for opening the door for garbage to be considered as art. This is not to say that all art from Detritus are as prepackaged as Duchamp’s Readymades such as Bicycle Wheel (1913) and the (in)famous Fountain (1917). In fact, the beauty of the most recent incarnation of Detritus Art is that artists have taken the discarded, the abandoned and spent waste stream of society and recast them into sculptures and forms which are not only pleasing to the eye, but subtlety emit a thought-provoking commentary on the throw-away culture of modern consumerism.

Perhaps the earliest progenitor of modern-day Detritus artists is Edward Kienholz. Keinholz’s constructions were less about detritus and the waste stream of society, and more of a social commentary on the seedier, dark sides of life in a “civilized” society. Works like The State Hospital (1966) and The Illegal Operation (1962) utilized detritus, but the audience was less concerned about recycling and ideas about “green” living, than in the subject matter and vicious brutality he utilized in making his commentaries.

Fast forward to the 21st century and we find ourselves at a near-crisis point in trying to find a way to dispose of our “garbage”. The rampant consumerism which fueled the late 20^th century and reached a crescendo by 2008 and Annie Leonard’s research while preparing the cartoonamentary “The Story of Stuff” reveals that today a whopping 99% of what we “harvest, mine, process, transport… that we run through the system is trashed” within 6 months. Not only are we burning through our natural resources at an alarming rate, we are also intoxicating the environment we live in.

Perhaps, Detritus Art won’t eliminate all of the waste that comes out of our homes, but it accomplishes three primary goals. First, it keeps some, albeit very little, of this material out of the landfills and prevents it from being burned into the atmosphere. Second, it shows alternative uses for our waste stream. And finally, directs attention to the issue of recycling, green living and zero-waste production.