Trashcans

Andrew Antonaccio (also known as 2alas) has created a new installation that uses nothing more than everyday trashcans to amplify the sounds we hear around us on a day to day basis. But are we really listening?

Some of those sounds have earned their place in the world: those of wind and weather, the sounds of birds or animals communicating to each other, the living world that should be allowed to exist unencumbered.

Other sounds are those that we have allowed to become background noise without truly understanding what we are hearing: an invasive, pollutive world of traffic, industrial machinery, the city environment. We have accepted these as part of the natural order, but in reality we have come to do so without considering their worth. We have been unconsciously exposed to these interferences without our express permission.

That contamination extends to every sense: what we see, what we smell, even the air we taste. At a time when questions of ecological choices become ever more urgent, is it time to reject the manufactured environment we have found ourselves sleepwalking into, and to return to the a natural world free of that pollution?

This installation is currently on show at Urban Nation Berlin and was curated by Tina Ziegler and Yasha Young