Ever thought of turning a bicycle into a fish or a washing machine into a ninja warrior? Of course you haven’t, that would just be silly… but these people have.
Marcel Duchamp was one of the first people to use an unwanted object as a recognized sculpture piece. In 1917 he submitted a signed urinal to an open exhibition in New York. Since then, so called ‘found art’ has been a staple of the art world. Of course, signing your name on a toilet is pretty easy and many would argue that this is not art at all. Making a unique sculpture out of everyday junk, on the other hand, can require a special kind of genius and perhaps even a special kind of crazy. Such artwork often pretends to tell us something about the way we dispose of our litter or that we have become a ‘disposable society’, but at its best, it’s simply fun, imaginative and bizarre.
10.
Metal Yoda
Accidentally killing Yoda when crashing down on the planet Dagobah, Luke decides to rebuild silly green gremlin using parts from his trashed X-wing.
“We can rebuild him. We have the technology, but we don’t want to spend a lot of money.”
These fantastic Star Wars sculptures were built by Bangkok artist Yumi Modal.
9.
Ink Jet Enterprise
Printer ink is so expensive that it seems a shame to just throw the empty cartridges away, so why not follow Faith Pearson’s lead and use them to create a unique piece of art, like this ink cartridge Starship Enterprise.
Next week we’ll show you how to make a Klingon battle-cruiser using noting but old floppy disks and some duct tappe.
8.
Joe Pogan’s Birds
While most junk sculptors think big, Oregon artist Joe Pogan thinks small, creating life-sized birds out of the tiniest bits of scrap metal including screws, nails, sprockets, broken watches and even spoons.
7.
Rubber Monsters
Korean artist Yong Ho Ji uses reclaimed rubber tires to create his intricately detailed monster statues. Here he is posing with his ‘Bullman 4’ sculpture before an exhibition in London.
Mutated tires is probably the one subject Steven King has never written a horror novel about. Yet.
6.
Circuit Board Shoes
Gabriel Dishaw has created countless junk sculptures, including some amazing figurines, but it’s his bizarre circuit board shoes which earn him a place in this list. The shoes are incredibly precise replicas of his favourite Nike shoes, copying the design right down to the pattern of the tread.
And they say there’s no such thing as an original idea.
