Walking into the show you think: “Another predictable piece of ‘installation art!'” (It’s nine garbage cans, some freestanding, some bolted to the wall.) Then you realize you’ve never seen garbage cans as art — real, functional garbage cans. They’re beautiful and repellent, like pornography.
I spend much time looking in trashcans, searching for free newspapers (especially in weird foreign languages.) So I peered inside these — they were empty. But a used garbage can is never quite vacant. The bottom is decorated with dried chewing gum, and unidentified tar-like dirt. These trashbin-bottoms vaguely resemble Jackson Pollock paintings — but much darker. There’s not much light in the depths of such a receptacle. One can has a graffito on its side: “WE SURVIVED” — handwritten in black pen. Near it is an official logo: “iKorb” (but is that the name of the manufacturer, or the municipal garbage service?)
From the wall text, I learned that these are international garbage cans, from “various cities.” How did Klara acquire these cans? Did she buy them? Were they discarded by the cities? Are these garbage cans themselves garbage?
