Robin Lasser, Professor of Art SJSU, lead curator www.robinlasser.com + www.refugeinrefuse.weebly.com
Refuge in Refuse, 37- minute single channel film, large - scale photographs, and installation. The artworks are a cooperative effort between myself and many of the “landfillians.” I am a “dog walker,” a “housey” (what the Bulb residents called people who have permanent homes)—and a kindred spirit roaming the Bulb for almost two decades. I began filming at the Albany Bulb for the purpose of documenting some of the ingenious ways some of the residents created home. For the past decade I have created, along with collaborator Adrienne Pao, nomadic wearable architecture that we call “Dress Tents.” Imagine a 15-foot-tall lady wearing a dress that you can walk into and utilize as a tent; a gathering space to consider the geopolitics of people and place. I wanted to explore how residents utilized recycled fabrics in their tent creations. Eventually I began to talk more deeply with some of the residents. What turned the tides for me was something resident Stephanie Ringstad shared about camping at the dump: “Living out here is considered homeless although we consider it our home.” Her message hooked me and I refocused my lens on a fiercely alternative group of people living creatively amongst ruins littered with art, architecture, and wild plants.
Where do you go in troubled times? Some residents responded with creative actions, utilizing artmaking as a life jacket, a coping mechanism to combat the stress of life on the brink of change. At the landfill, residents created and lived their dreams. I have fallen in love with some of the people at the dump, their multiple realities, insistence on free living, and their creative spirit. How our paths at the landfill have become intertwined, and what we create together, provide context for the work. We explore the roles of aesthetics within political struggle, issues of human justice at odds with environmental issues, and who has the right to do what in public. Our on-site collaborations include: a landfill fashion show with former residents- Danielle Evans, Saint, and Tamara Robinson, “boxercise” lessons with Boxer Bob, performance art collaboration with Tamara Robinson and story sharing with former Albany Bulb Residents: April Anthony, Boxer Bob, Crazy Steve, Danielle Evans, Katherine Cody, Mad Marc, Tamara Robinson, Chester Mounten and Amber Whitson.
Refuge in Refuse, 37- minute single channel film, large - scale photographs, and installation. The artworks are a cooperative effort between myself and many of the “landfillians.” I am a “dog walker,” a “housey” (what the Bulb residents called people who have permanent homes)—and a kindred spirit roaming the Bulb for almost two decades. I began filming at the Albany Bulb for the purpose of documenting some of the ingenious ways some of the residents created home. For the past decade I have created, along with collaborator Adrienne Pao, nomadic wearable architecture that we call “Dress Tents.” Imagine a 15-foot-tall lady wearing a dress that you can walk into and utilize as a tent; a gathering space to consider the geopolitics of people and place. I wanted to explore how residents utilized recycled fabrics in their tent creations. Eventually I began to talk more deeply with some of the residents. What turned the tides for me was something resident Stephanie Ringstad shared about camping at the dump: “Living out here is considered homeless although we consider it our home.” Her message hooked me and I refocused my lens on a fiercely alternative group of people living creatively amongst ruins littered with art, architecture, and wild plants.
Where do you go in troubled times? Some residents responded with creative actions, utilizing artmaking as a life jacket, a coping mechanism to combat the stress of life on the brink of change. At the landfill, residents created and lived their dreams. I have fallen in love with some of the people at the dump, their multiple realities, insistence on free living, and their creative spirit. How our paths at the landfill have become intertwined, and what we create together, provide context for the work. We explore the roles of aesthetics within political struggle, issues of human justice at odds with environmental issues, and who has the right to do what in public. Our on-site collaborations include: a landfill fashion show with former residents- Danielle Evans, Saint, and Tamara Robinson, “boxercise” lessons with Boxer Bob, performance art collaboration with Tamara Robinson and story sharing with former Albany Bulb Residents: April Anthony, Boxer Bob, Crazy Steve, Danielle Evans, Katherine Cody, Mad Marc, Tamara Robinson, Chester Mounten and Amber Whitson.