art at the dump

Yesterday after work I drove down to the San Francisco dump to see the work produced by artists Christina Mazza and Erik Otto during their recent residency there.  Both Mazza and Otto seem a natural fit for the dump's Artist in Residency program, Mazza with her precise drawings of banal objects (that's her wall mural of shredded packing paper in progress there to the right) and Otto with his work on salvaged materials.  Besides his paintings on scraps of discarded wood Otto has also put together a wonderful sculpture of wee houses spiraling upward through the air that occupies the center of the gallery, while a heap of old analog television sets in one corner are rigged to broadcast both art and static.  Mazza similarly used the objects and scraps she found on her scavenges to inspire her work both in its subject matter and in the materials used.  San Francisco has recently rebranded its waste disposal as "Recology" and is working hard to reduce the amount of trash that goes to the landfill through active composting and recycling initiatives, and the Artist in Residence program has always been a awesome way to increase visibility about the city's waste streams.  And I always leap at a chance to visit the dump.