Sculptures made of plastic bags at Materials for the Arts in LIC

This week we checked out the opening reception of Carried Away, an art exhibit at Materials for the Arts in Long Island City (GMAP). On view are several colorful works that resemble Buddha heads and headless ancient Greek sculptures. The modern, down-to-earth twist is that they’re all made of plastic bags and other found and recycled materials such as bottles, spools of thread, and PVC pipes.

The trash-to-treasure theme fits in perfectly at Materials for the Arts (MFTA), an organization that collects donated materials that would otherwise be discarded, and makes them available to schools and nonprofit organizations for creative repurposing. Its warehouse of sorted items includes fabric, buttons, wallpaper, chairs, lamps, and video equipment, and makes for an inspiring “shopping” experience for community-minded artists, educators, and others. Items are given at no cost to qualifying recipients, who are then required to write thank you letters to the material donors.

The artist, Beth Williams Garrett, lives in LIC, and is currently the artist-in-residence at Materials for the Arts. She found the PVC pipe that serves as the core of her tallest sculpture, Enlightened, in the MFTA warehouse. Another sculpture’s base is made of a ceramic vase that Garrett made a long time ago and couldn’t find a better use for.

The plastic bags featured in her sculptures are recognizable: a skirt made from a Charmin bag, a nose fashioned from Duane Reade bags, eyebrows and earrings crafted from the skinny black bags with diagonal gold stripes that you get when you buy a bottle of wine. This aspect of the exhibit reminds us all of the waste that we typically generate, and the creativity we can use to avoid such waste.

Next time you are clearing clutter from your home or office, consider donating unwanted items to MFTA. Things you can’t think of a use for could be reborn as a child’s art project or a nonprofit organization’s office equipment. You’ll be part of a movement: MFTA has estimated that its efforts have diverted around 999,000 pounds of waste in 2012 alone.

Carried Away runs through February 14, 2013.