Some may see Gignac’s form of recycling of trash into art as being somewhat enterprising, but fans from around the world are not complaining. The artist has sold over 1,300 cubes to collectors in over 25 countries world wide.

Gignac uses his Garbage cubes as a way to peek into the daily lives of New Yorkers, offering buyers around the world a piece of the great city. The “curated” garbage can range from a collection of Metrocards, theater tickets, soda bottles, or snippets of street life, like caution tape, matches and the iconic blue and yellow lunch cart coffee cups. All of the collections are forever immortalized in sealed Lucite cubes, which are then signed, numbered and dated by Gignac himself.

New York City Garbage even comes in “limited edition” cubes, which feature ephemera-trash from New Year’s Eve at Times Square, Republican National Convention refuse, and World Series souveniers, like tickets and sports pendant fragments.

The conglomerations may not seem like art at first glance, but they do preserve a snippet of New York life in a hand-held cube. Time capsules like this have been popular with artists such as Andy Warhol who turned hundreds of boxes of trash into art installations.

+ Justin Gignac

Via Web Urbanist