John Dahlsen

Enviro Artist of the Day!

-JOHN DAHLSEN-

 Dahlsen is an Australian artist whose work is built from trash and debris found on the the beaches of Australia. He began collecting these trash items while searching for driftwood along the coastline and felt compelled to clean up the trash as well.  Soon the more trash he collected the more he found and he realized this new medium was found and the possibilities were endless.  the image above is a collection of totems that are built from various discarded items that Dahlsen found.  The staggering amount of debris that he is able to collect again shocks my ways of thinking about everything that I use and how I dispose of it.  The image below is made entirely of plastic bags that washed up on shore.  What I think what I see this abstracted landscape is that any number of animals could have found these bags and tried to eat them.  There are thousands sandwiched in the frame and all were found on the beach. 

What Dahlsen hopes his art will achieve is to shake up people's way of thinking and change it for the positive.  Knowing the issues is not enough but pushing them to positive action, such as reuse and recycling, is the main goal.

I think we can all learn a lot about ourselves and the environment from his art.  It also brings up the point that environmental issues are not limited to the United States but rather the whole world needs to begin to rethink how trash is disposed of and what we can all do to clean up little by little....

To see more of John Dahlsen's work:  John Dahlsen

This reminds of a movie with a little recycling robot.... hmmmmm