Find The Turtle: The Trash Art Event Of The Year

BRIDGEPORT — Chicago had its cows, Buffalo had a herd of buffalo, West Hartford has a brand new herd of cows, and now Black Rock has “Find The Turtle: A Trash Art Event.”

International Performing Arts (IPA) has commissioned eight artists as part of a “Find The Turtle” project to transform garbage receptacles into functional works of public art. The cooperative community project with public and private entities located in the Heart of Historic Black Rock, a section of Bridgeport, attempts to communicate to residents and visitors to the area a provocative approach to the mountains of garbage produced in our society each day.

The local participating arts organizations and businesses are taking a responsible step to participate in a welcoming streetscape with imaginative and fantastic creations of common garbage receptacles into art.

“Find The Turtle” addresses a community need to develop a regular maintenance program in addition to being a catalyst to develop a cooperative working relationship among businesses, property owners, arts organizations and their patrons. “Find The Turtle” addresses these needs by providing eight unique artist/students designed trash receptacles with a subtly imbedded turtle image within the design.

Each artist is working with a team of four students from local schools. The artists are working with the students in developing a unique concept for each receptacle and will then begin the transformation of a trash receptacle into a utilitarian art work. Each receptacle will be quietly imbedded with a turtle as part of the “Find The Turtle” campaign.

Local businesses have agreed to provide 25 percent of the cost per receptacle, regular maintenance including emptying, and security of the receptacles placed at or around their establishments for a one-year period of time. Participating organizations include Black Rock Castle, Acoustic Café, Jeffrey Weiss Gallery, Taco Loco, and The Black Rock Art Center.

“Find The Turtle” features artists from diverse backgrounds including painter Susan Breen, multimedia artist Michela Griffo, photographer Ray Curretto, architect David Barbour, painter Carolina Guimarey, sculptor Dalton Ghetti, sound artist James Moss, metalsmith Lanette Barber and mixed media artist Marcella Kurkowski.

Sculptor/metalsmith artist Lanette Barber uses her garbage can to “…transform a utilitarian object that underscores the presence and importance of art in everyday life.” Ms Barber and her student team have used seashells, buttons, brass washers and glass mosaic to stimulate “… an ecological awareness, the importance of beauty and the need to keep our environment pollution and trash free.”

Artist Michela Griffo and her team decided to create a work of art that is modeled after Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup can artworks, while painter Susan Breen and her team are transforming their 45-gallon, galvanized steel trash container “by covering the entire surface with glass or plastic chandelier drops, giving the container a jewel-like appearance, in direct contrast to the trash this object will hold.”

The opening day of “Find The Turtle” will be Saturday, November 8, from 3 to 5 pm, on Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport, with live music, special prizes, awards, complimentary food and special discounts at local restaurants. For further information call 203-367-7917.