We live in a disposable society; packaging and broken items go in to the trash without a second thought.  Things come packaged five to six times before they can be opened and used.  Americans dispose of 251 million tons of trash annually, recycling and composting a mere 34.5 percent.   With these astounding numbers and the continual mindset that more is better and once it’s thrown away it disappears, Paper, Thread, and Trash will explore the relationship we have developed with our waste.

 

Artists take that excess, that which is discarded, and showing us how to make use of it, make art.  Moved by the need for an increase in recycling and reuse on a large scale, artists are in a pivotal position to show us how to make the change.  

 

Books are typically made of board, paper, thread, a little glue, pictures and images.  Book artists enjoy pushing the boundaries of typical bookmaking using unorthodox materials and concepts, so why not our trash, our unwanted?

 

In Paper, Thread, and Trash, 14 Tennessee artists address the issues of consumption and waste by using found and superfluous materials to build original and unique books through very literal interpretations to installations and conceptual based projects.  These works of art challenge the artists and viewer to look at our waste in new ways.

 

Artist include: Aletha Carr, Nance Cooley, Meredith Eastburn, Kelly Falzone, Kathryn Gonzalez, Emily Holt, Courtney Adair Johnson, Megan Kelly, Kit Kite, Cynthia Marsh, Lesley Patterson-Marx, Nelson Meadows, Lisa Rivas, Jamaica Shaw.

 

 

Curated by Courtney Adair Johnson