Personal Statement

by Jo Hanson


About Her Work with Trash

An ocean of urban trash flows daily to my windy corner of San Francisco. Revelation blows on the wind: about the waste society, the careless or alienated urban dweller, the environmentally irresponsible packaging and advertizing industries ...

Art in a variety of forms has emerged from street trash as I have cleaned by sidewalk and street since 1970: documentation, collage, sculpture, installations of trash and its sources and disposition, a bus tour of illegal dumping, performance, etc. For several years I have used street-crushed metals for sculpture, collage and memorial posts.

All of my work takes shape with love and care and takes issue with waste and disregard. I feel the work as a metaphor for transformation and transcendence. It insists that we change our ways and our thinking and become guardians of the resources of the earth which supports our life and is more fragile and endangered than we used to believe possible.