Image © Laura St. Pierre

A new exhibition of found-object art mixed with ‘Junkitecture’ has resulted in an interesting visual experiment by Canadian Artist Laura St. Pierre. St. Pierre is a well established and recognized green artist in Canada, known for creating art that encourages the viewer to ask questions about how they live in today’s world. [ St. Pierre transformed gas-guzzling cars into functional greenhouses for AutoPark, an outdoor installation at last summer’s Works Art and Design Festival. ]

Her new exhibition called ‘Urban Vernacular’ explores society’s infatuation with mass consumption and the inevitable resulting waste that is crippling our planet. Using recycling and trash from landfill, St. Pierre constructs urban dwellings, and then photographs them. More of a visual exercise than and experiment in architecture the exhibition draws the viewer in with huge prints and sparks a notion that perhaps there is an alternative to waste and maybe recycling could become a natural process for future urban generation.

“Vernacular architecture is basically architecture without architects. In certain cultures the methods of building are closely tied to the land and the materials that are available. Vernacular architecture tends to be very environmentally friendly — the materials don’t travel very far, if at all and often they just return to the land. It is sort of emblematic of the way some people still manage to live in harmony with nature. If we had to build houses out of whatever was laying around, it would definitely be out of garbage because that’s what we have the most of.”

Image © Laura St. Pierre

She believes that thinking about what happens to the stuff we use and throw away is part of the process. We might use a plastic bottle for 10 minutes and basically it will last for eternity as far as we know. Similarly, when you walk around landfill sites you can’t help but wonder how everything in there was ‘new’ at some point but the issue really should be for how long it remained ‘new’ or usable?

Image © Laura St. Pierre

Find out more about the Artist

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