Meet Nemo Gould: Artist-In-Residence at the San Francisco Dump

"Guzzler" by Nemo Gould, September 22, 2007

San Francisco is a city that takes its garbage seriously. Thanks to an extensive waste-sorting program, 69 percent of the city's waste is recycled, and special programs exist to facilitate the clean disposal of everything from dog poop to toxic waste. Everything else goes to the dump, but even here some clever recycling takes place. Thanks to an artist-in-residence program at the San Francisco municipal landfill, the best material is converted into art by a lucky artist who gets free onsite studio space and first dibs on all the castaway stuff delivered for disposal. Norcal Waste Systems explains:

The Artist In Residence Program at SF Recycling & Disposal, Inc. is an innovative program that inspires and educates people about recycling and resource conservation by providing local artists with access to materials, a work space, and other resources at our Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center.

Since 1990, artists have worked in a large, well-equipped studio next to our Transfer Station west of Highway 101 near Monster Park in San Francisco. The Transfer Station is located within a 44-acre property that includes several recycling facilities and the Public Disposal Area (also known as "the dump").

All that comes by way of explaining how Telstar Logistics ended up at the dump on Saturday afternoon to go see an art opening.  We've seen several of these shows in the past, and while all have been good, Nemo Gould, the current artist-in-residence, has done some exceptionally strong work.  Using found metals, vehicle parts, furniture, and bits and pieces of old tools and appliances, Gould created a series of kinetic Fauxbots -- "mechanical sculptures inspired by popular conceptions of robots."

All very high-fallutin', perhaps, but it's hard to resist the simple charm of a chorus line of corkscrews dancing in unison inside an old television set:

"Alco-hologram" by Nemo Gould: Television set, wine openers, lights, motor,
player piano parts, coffee table top, velvet, chinese lamp.
Watch it in full-motion video here.

Or a streamlined roller-dog crafted from old hair-clippers, electric drills, and bike parts:

"Junkyard Dog" by Nemo Gould: Hair clipper, electric drill, magazine stand,
casters, bicycle brake levers, cheese clicers, teapot spout

Or a mechanized octopus built from rocking chair parts that lunges into the room at the press of a button:

"Cephalopod" by Nemo Gould: Chair parts, light fixture, brake light, golf caddy cart, baking pan,
indicator lights, vacuum cleaner bag mount.

Lots more photos via the links below, and exploration is strongly encouraged.

LINKS:
Nemomatic (Nemo Gould's website)

Nemo Gould (Flickr photoset of Nemo Gould's work created at the SF dump)

Artatthedump (Flickr photostream for the SF Dump's Artist in Residence program)

Artist-in-Residence (AIR): SF Recycling and Disposal (Norcal Waste Systems AIR program website)

(Photos: Top, Telstar Logistics.  All other photos by Artatthedump)