Looking at sustainability and ecological impact of creating Art

Sustainability continues to be at the centre of political, social, and economic debates as the Planet and the discussions heat up. We now can see a recycled art movement. Artists may be politically motivated or not, like Vik Muniz, Derek Gores, Tim Noble, Sue Webster, Guerra de la Paz, Nik Gentry, Wim Delvoye, Khalil Chishtee, Subodh Gupta, Ptolemy Elrington or Yuken Teruya: All of them create inspirational and original pieces.

By working with recycled materials, these artists encourage their viewers to question the sustainability and ecological impact of the artistic process. Often favouring biodegradable media, their works are sketchy, inspiring, and beautiful.

Taking art recycling to the next level seems to be the interest of the WPWR collective and their virtual art company on the French Riviera.

For their “Once in a Lifetime” Art Installation, a collector is buying into a 100-year-old original oil painting. Commissioning WPWR on the French Riviera, they custom create a new impressionist hand painted original top layer. The “recycling process” causes the old oil painting to hide from the rest of the world forever which makes both paintings unique. The top painting is always one-of-a-kind and created specifically for an eligible collector in true museum quality.

The painting on century old canvas is a creation in colour and composition, look and feel to make it a true original and one-of-a-kind work of art. At the same time, it makes the old “base painting” priceless! The art collective makes provenance documentation on the recycled and the new painting only available to a registered legal owner of this art installation. This may have significant potential for value appreciation down the road.

While on other continents like India artists make large-scale sculptures from everyday materials. Brazilian creators specialize in reproducing masterpieces. Some work with shredded magazine paper, labels, recycled clothing while others create life-size sculptures out of recycled plastic bags. In the recycled art movement, collected waste of manufactured products and the art that is created is meant to cause a dialogue about the impact of waste on our environment.