While Enhancing a Diminishing Deep Down Thirst, the Juice Broke Loose (the Birth of a Soda Shop) (2008) - Phoebe Washburn
For this installation, Washburn grew flowers in tanks of golf balls, which were watered by an irrigation system pumped with Gatorade. From Washburn's entry on the 2008 Whitney Biennial site:
"Like artists such as Nancy Rubins, Vik Muniz, and Sarah Sze, Washburn composes her pieces with items from the world of manufacturing, and this choice seems to comment on the profusion and waste of consumer culture. But she says her recycling of refuse is not an ecological act: “A lot of my working process involves skimming off of other industries, but my decision to collect and repurpose materials was not born out of trying to make a statement at all.” She explains that her compulsion to accumulate discarded materials to feed her art is motivated by “greed” rather than notions of conservation. Yet her work continues to resonate with ideas about economy and sustainability."
Nice post - always loved this piece - and yet not a word about Idiocracy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1fKzw05Q5A