This article is the second in a series of Artistic Recycling articles. These articles highlight ways that trash can be turned into treasure. This piece involves the reinvention of cardboard egg cartons into canvases which can be viewed from a never ending series of angles and view points. The cups of the egg cartons obliterate some of the perceptive angles of the viewer.
There's an amazing recycling artist named Enno de Kroon on Flickr. He has developed a technique he calls "Egg Cubism" which involves painting on egg cartons. The cups on the cartons obliterate some of the angles of the viewer from every point so the painting becomes completely interactive with the viewer. He views the cartons as two and a half dimensional. The obliterated areas from the cups make the paintings appear incomplete and leave it up to the viewer's mind itself to fill in these missing areas.
This painting is entitled "Kiss I" and is pictured from the front and from the right side. These two angles pictured above give the viewer a good idea of how much work is involved in these "two and a half dimensional" paintings. I especially like how the two people's noses converge into one. It's totally different than anything I've seen before. The artist, Enno de Kroon, has to walk around his studio and view the egg crate from each angle and paints every bit of the surface area so that it is viewable from an increasing amount of angles. Sometimes, he bends the egg cartons before painting them to make the viewing experience even more interactive.
This painting is entitled "Oral Tradition" and is pictured above from both the left and right angles. You can see how this egg carton has been deformed before being painted. The angle of both subjects heads is particularly intriguing in this painting. It appears like one of them is talking into the other's ear and the second one is repeating what he said. Maybe the artist is trying to show how oral traditions like storytelling often turn into the telephone game! This painting in particular shows why he calls it "egg cubism". Look how many eyes he had to paint on this one -- count 6! Cubism indeed.
This painting is entitled "Follow me, I am a local. Locals don't get lost...". I love how the "local" envisioning a fairy can only be seen from the left angle, and she completely disappears or "gets lost" when viewed from the right angle. I talked to the artist who stated that: "The interactivity of the work poses the question on who is getting lost here. I think it is the viewer who gets lost and not 'the fairy'." Beautiful, stunning imagery!
This artist shows how something can be completely repurposed by taking something from the garbage, quite literally, and turning it into a stunning masterpiece to be treasured for years by discerning artists worldwide. He shows how when something is viewed completely "outside of the box", a whole new world can be opened creatively. He is making our planet greener and more imaginative through his work. I plan on continuing on this tangent of how things can be artistically recycled. Keep tuning in!
Thanks for your comment! His work is amazing. There's even more of it on flickr if you wanted to check it out. He's super nice too. I corresponded via email with him to get permission to use his shots. It'd be hard to talk about the paintings without seeing them -- they're really indescribeable!
