Co-curated with jill moniz, Diverted Destruction 7 concentrates on the multiple perspectives of reusing ephemera.

moniz pushed the boundaries of the exhibition guidelines, including works that re-purpose paper in addition to the strictly recycled ephemera. CSULB art professor Todd Gray reimagines his past to create a new conversation between the work he produced as Michael Jackson’s official photographer and the images he captures in his second homeland of Ghana, on the Sub-Saharan African coast. While LA based artist Joe Davidson is focused on the practice of recycling his literal past: old financial statements and moniz’s healthcare statements, and letting the reduced paper pulp speak for itself.

TM Gratkowski, Doug Pearsall and Dana Bean juxtapose issues of urbanity with sometimes playful and always meaningful interpretations of the confluence of art and life. Pearsall collages grocery bags and circular advertisements, creating an entirely unique aesthetic sustenance and laden with texture. Bean uses popular periodicals to translate the angst of city living with a focus on LA’s landscape. Gratkowski’s three dimensional chandelier exposes newsprint in a whole new light, while his 2D images have all the tension and beauty of modern life found in the pages of his favorite newspapers, magazines and books.

Mike Saijo deconstructs books from the bindings, but never from their meaning. His work recaptures icons of art and architecture, with a focus on how we read and contextualize visual culture. As a visitor to LA and elsewhere, the U.K’s Crystal Fischetti uses tourist detritus to document and reframe these destinations with a concentration on feeling rather than reality. Dramatist and visual artist Shriram Jogheng (India) offers up works of bold color, graceful form and impassioned movement.  His approach is self-described as Einsteinism as applied to arts, demonstrating the interrelationship between theater and painting.

Finally, in the projects room Philadelphia artist Cheryl Levin expands an idea born from scraps of metal found in her husband Bob Phillips’ studio, Phillips Metal. After his unexpected death, Levin married these shapes with her own former artistic explorations on paper. She reimagines this union in various media, once again stretching the multiple levels on which artists are able to creatively illustrate the concept of diverted destruction. 

All the work in DD7 intensifies to the ongoing, important dialog about reusing materials in the environment that would otherwise go to landfills. The contributing artists and the curators believe in both the necessity and aesthetic value of such work. This year, on opening night, an artists’ panel allowed for a larger conversation about these issues and launch the celebration of Diverted Destruction in a new way.

Video footage courtesy of Juri Koll

click to hear Liz Gordon’s interview with KCRW