Page 14 - ARUBA TODAY

A14 LOCAL
Tuesday 25 February 2020

Recycled Folk Art Episode 56- LVI

ORANJESTAD — Aruba for being a small island generates an enormous
amount of waste. We must realize that this entire waist was once on a
container as import. Recycling is an essential action to reduce waste that
will be otherwise dumped in the environment. Within this action two ap-
proaches have emerged as possible solutions.

Building with recycled materials

A skate board bench

The first is down cycling and the other artworks which are part of the deco-
upcycling. In the former, the break ration, such as lamps, masks, shells
down process is accelerated at a high and bones feathers and seeds etc.
cost and hardly sustainable if not all Upcycled art or upcycling art is cur-
details are followed as planned and rently inspiring many artists around the
budged available applied as efficient world and prevents tons of garbage
necessary. The result must benefit na- to reach dumping grounds.
ture and citizen as a result of the pro- Dumping must be seen and treated as
cess, while in the latter all waste has a a critical message regarding exces-
value that can be increased through sive consumption and environmental
creative intervention. pollution. Transform waste such as pa-
Our island waste impasse deserves per, cardboard, wood, glass, plastics,
a creative solution and a pragmatic metals and rubber into works of art
intervention. In our experiment with that carries a message will impact the
upcycling our initial design led to the connoisseur. The concept, therefore,
emergence of our native living lab goes beyond the conventional recy-
and atelier at Westpunt Aruba known cling of materials by creating objects
as Etnia Nativa. A project that incor- that exceed the economic, cultural
porated recollected materials dur- and social value of the original prod-
ing every phases of its construction uct.
process. The same was applied in
the building of artifacts furniture and Continued on Page 15 Bat Shaman. Art work made completely out of recollected materials