Hubbry Logo
Found objectFound objectMain
Open search
Found object
Community hub
Found object
logo
8 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Contribute something
Found object
Found object
Found object
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917; photograph by Alfred Stieglitz

A found object (a calque from the French objet trouvé), or found art,[1][2][3] is art created from undisguised, but often modified, items or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already have a non-art function.[4] Pablo Picasso first publicly utilized the idea when he pasted a printed image of chair caning onto his painting titled Still Life with Chair Caning (1912). Marcel Duchamp is thought to have perfected the concept several years later when he made a series of readymades, consisting of completely unaltered everyday objects selected by Duchamp and designated as art.[5] The most famous example is Fountain (1917), a standard urinal purchased from a hardware store and displayed on a pedestal, resting on its back. In its strictest sense the term "readymade" is applied exclusively to works produced by Marcel Duchamp,[6] who borrowed the term from the clothing industry (French: prêt-à-porter, lit. 'ready-to-wear') while living in New York, and especially to works dating from 1913 to 1921.

Found objects derive their identity as art from the designation placed upon them by the artist and from the social history that comes with the object. This may be indicated by either its anonymous wear and tear (as in collages of Kurt Schwitters) or by its recognizability as a consumer icon (as in the sculptures of Haim Steinbach). The context into which it is placed is also a highly relevant factor. The idea of dignifying commonplace objects in this way was originally a shocking challenge to the accepted distinction between what was considered art as opposed to not art. Although it may now be accepted in the art world as a viable practice, it continues to arouse questioning, as with the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize exhibition of Tracey Emin's My Bed, which consisted literally of a transposition of her unmade and disheveled bed, surrounded by shed clothing and other bedroom detritus, directly from her bedroom to the Tate. In this sense the artist gives the audience time and a stage to contemplate an object. As such, found objects can prompt philosophical reflection in the observer ranging from disgust to indifference to nostalgia to empathy.[citation needed]

As an art form, found objects tend to include the artist's output—at the very least an idea about it, i.e. the artist's designation of the object as art—which is nearly always reinforced with a title. There is usually some degree of modification of the found object, although not always to the extent that it cannot be recognized, as is the case with readymades. Recent critical theory, however, would argue that the mere designation and relocation of any object, readymades included, constitutes a modification of the object because it changes our perception of its utility, its lifespan, or its status.

History

[edit]

Antecedents

[edit]
See also: Manuport
Alphonse Allais, Des souteneurs encore dans la force de l'âge et le ventre dans l'herbe boivent de l'absinthe, carriage curtain, before 1897.

One curator considers East Asian scholar's rocks to be early examples of found objects. Found and collected in natural settings, the rocks are changed only minimally for display, seldom beyond the addition of a display stand, and are meant to be contemplated as idealized representations of nature. Geological processes, chief among them erosion, give the rocks their distinctive qualities, rather than any modification by an artist or artisan.[7]

In 2017–2018, the French expert Johann Naldi [fr] found and identified seventeen unpublished works in a private collection, classified as a national treasure on May 7, 2021, by the French Ministry of Culture,[8] including Des souteneurs encore dans la force de l'âge et le ventre dans l'herbe by Alphonse Allais, consisting of a green carriage curtain suspended from a wooden cylinder.[9] This work was certainly exhibited at the Incoherents exhibitions in Paris between 1883 and 1893. According to Johann Naldi, this work is the oldest known readymade and was a source of inspiration for Marcel Duchamp.[10]

Duchamp's "readymades"

[edit]
Main article: Readymades of Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp coined the term readymade in 1915 to describe a common object that had been selected and not materially altered in any way. Duchamp assembled Bicycle Wheel in 1913 by attaching a common front wheel and fork to the seat of a common stool. This was not long after his Nude Descending a Staircase was attracting the attention of critics at the International Exhibition of Modern Art. In 1917, Fountain, a urinal signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt", and generally attributed to Duchamp, confounded the art world. In the same year, Duchamp indicated in a letter to his sister, Suzanne Duchamp, that a female friend was centrally involved in the conception of this work. As he writes: "One of my female friends who had adopted the pseudonym Richard Mutt sent me a porcelain urinal as a sculpture."[11] Irene Gammel argues that the piece is more in line with the scatological aesthetics of Duchamp's friend, the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, than Duchamp's.[12] The other possible, and more probable, "female friend" is Louise Norton (later Varèse), who contributed an essay to The Blind Man discussing Fountain.[13] Norton, who recently had separated from her husband, was living at the time in an apartment owned by her parents at 110 West 88th Street in New York City, and this address is partially discernible (along with "Richard Mutt") on the paper entry ticket attached to the object, as seen in Stieglitz's photograph.[14]

Research by Rhonda Roland Shearer indicates that Duchamp may have fabricated his found objects. Exhaustive research of mundane items like snow shovels and bottle racks in use at the time failed to reveal identical matches. The urinal, upon close inspection, is non-functional. However, there are accounts of Walter Arensberg and Joseph Stella being with Duchamp when he purchased the original Fountain at J. L. Mott Iron Works.[15]

Later development

[edit]
An Oak Tree by Michael Craig-Martin; 1973

The use of found objects was quickly taken up by the Dada movement, being used by Man Ray and Francis Picabia who combined it with traditional art by sticking combs onto a painting to represent hair.[16] A well-known work by Man Ray is Gift (1921), which is an iron with nails sticking out from its flat underside, thus rendering it useless.[17] Jose de Creeft began making large-scale assemblages in Paris, such as Picador (1925), made of scrap metal, rubber and other materials.[citation needed]

The combination of several found objects is a type of readymade sometimes known as an assemblage. Another such example is Marcel Duchamp's Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?, consisting of a small birdcage containing a thermometer, cuttlebone, and 151 marble cubes resembling sugar cubes.

By the time of the Surrealist Exhibition of Objects in 1936 a whole range of sub-classifications had been devised—including found objects, ready-made objects, perturbed objects, mathematical objects, natural objects, interpreted natural objects, incorporated natural objects, Oceanic objects, American objects and Surrealist objects. At this time Surrealist leader, André Breton, defined readymades as "manufactured objects raised to the dignity of works of art through the choice of the artist".

In the 1960s, found objects were present in both the Fluxus movement and in pop art. Joseph Beuys exhibited modified found objects; examples include rocks with a hole in them stuffed with fur and fat, a van with sledges trailing behind it, and a rusty girder.

In 1973, Michael Craig-Martin claimed of his work An Oak Tree, "It's not a symbol. I have changed the physical substance of the glass of water into that of an oak tree. I didn't change its appearance. The actual oak tree is physically present, but in the form of a glass of water."[18]

Other types of found objects

[edit]

Commodity sculpture

[edit]

In the 1980s, a variation of found objects emerged called commodity sculpture where commercially mass-produced items would be arranged in the art gallery as sculpture. The focus of this variety of sculpture was on the marketing, display of products. These artists included Jeff Koons, Haim Steinbach, and Ashley Bickerton (who later moved on to do other kinds of work).

One of Jeff Koons' early signature works was Two Ball 50/50 Tank, 1985, which consisted of two basketballs floating in water, which half-fills a glass tank.

Trash art

[edit]
Junk art at Oak Street Beach
Art made from trash found on the streets of New York City by artist Bobby Puleo (2021)

A specific subgenre of found objects is known as trash art or junk art.[19] These works primarily comprise components that have been discarded. Often they come quite literally from the trash. One example of trash art is trashion, fashion made from trash. Marina DeBris takes trash from the beach and creates dresses, vests, and other clothes. Many organizations sponsor junk art competitions. Trash art may also have a social purpose, of raising awareness of trash.[20]

A permanent yet evolving example of junk art on Highway 66 near Amboy, California

Artists who create art from trash include:

  • Spanish artist Francisco de Pajaro ("Art is trash" or "Arte es basura")[21]
  • Australian artist Paul Yore, who uses trash to create a kind of "kitsch queerness", "bad taste aesthetic", in order to challenge people's perceptions, and to examine excess consumption in society.[22]

In music

[edit]

Found objects can also be used as musical instruments.[23] It is an important part of the musique concrète genre.

Found sounds have been used by acts including Cop Shoot Cop, Radiohead,[24] Four Tet,[25] The Books,[26] and Björk.[27] The musician Cosmo Sheldrake, who uses found sounds from the natural world in his music, has stated that incorporating the "soundscape" of ecosystems into music may be an effective means of communicating important messages about issues such as climate change.[28]

Criticism

[edit]

The found object in art has been a subject of polarised debate in Britain throughout the 1990s due to the use of it by the Young British Artists. It has been rejected by the general public and journalists, and supported by public museums and art critics. In his 2000 Dimbleby lecture, Who's afraid of modern art, Sir Nicholas Serota advocated such kinds of "difficult" art, while quoting opposition such as the Daily Mail headline "For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising forces. Today, pickled sheep and soiled beds threaten to make barbarians of us all". A more unexpected rejection in 1999 came from artists—some of whom had previously worked with found objects—who founded the Stuckists group and issued a manifesto denouncing such work in favour of a return to painting with the statement "Ready-made art is a polemic of materialism".[29]

Artists

[edit]
Further information: List of found objects

Many modern artists are notable for their use of found objects in their art. These include the following:

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Found object

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
A found object, also known as objet trouvé in French, is a natural or man-made item, or fragment thereof, that an selects—often from —for its intrinsic aesthetic, conceptual, or interest and incorporates into a , typically with minimal alteration to its original form. This practice challenges traditional notions of istic creation by elevating utilitarian, manufactured, or discarded materials to the status of , emphasizing context, placement, and the artist's intent over craftsmanship or originality. The use of found objects emerged prominently in the early 20th century, with pioneering the technique in his 1912 Cubist collages, where he integrated real-world elements like newspaper scraps and matchboxes into paintings to blur the boundaries between representation and reality. This approach gained momentum during the Dada movement in the 1910s, particularly through Marcel Duchamp's readymades—such as his iconic 1917 , a porcelain urinal signed and exhibited as sculpture—which rejected aesthetic conventions and critiqued the art establishment in the wake of . Surrealists like further explored found objects in the 1920s and 1930s to evoke the unconscious, as seen in Dalí's (1936), a telephone receiver fused with a lobster to symbolize and . Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, found objects have influenced diverse movements, including , where artists like incorporated mass-produced items in combines like Coca-Cola Plan (1958) to comment on consumer culture, and contemporary practices by figures such as and , who use personal or discarded items in installations like Emin's (1998) to explore identity and intimacy. Artists like collected natural found objects such as bones and flints for their sculptural potential, while later practitioners including , , and have repurposed industrial or everyday materials to address themes of materiality, environment, and social critique. This enduring technique underscores art's capacity to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, continuing to provoke questions about authorship, value, and the role of context in defining art.

Definition and Characteristics

Core Principles

A found object, also known as an objet trouvé in French, refers to a natural or man-made everyday, mass-produced, or discarded item that an selects and incorporates into a , thereby challenging conventional notions of authorship, , and aesthetic value in traditional artistic production. These objects are typically unaltered or minimally modified, deriving their artistic significance from the artist's deliberate choice rather than from craftsmanship or transformation. This practice emphasizes the object's inherent qualities—such as its form, texture, or cultural associations—recontextualized within an artistic framework to provoke new interpretations. Central to the core principles of found objects is the artist's intentional selection, which transforms a mundane item into a meaningful artistic element through the act of designation alone. This selection process highlights the role of the artist's in elevating the ordinary, shifting the object's from practical utility to one imbued with symbolic or conceptual depth. The principle of shift underscores how relocation—such as placing a utilitarian item in a gallery—alters its perceived meaning, often revealing latent poetic or ironic qualities that were previously overlooked in daily life. Additionally, found objects embrace and chance, drawing on the transient nature of everyday items and the serendipitous aspects of discovery to underscore themes of impermanence and unpredictability in . For instance, natural objects like bones or flints, as collected by , can be selected for their sculptural forms. The practice of incorporating found elements evolved from early 20th-century , where artists and began incorporating fragments of real-world materials, such as newsprint and , into collages and assemblages around 1912, laying the groundwork for the practice. The term objet trouvé later emerged in the context of and to describe these integrations of pre-existing elements, marking a departure from illusionistic representation toward a more direct engagement with tangible reality. Representative examples include simple, unaltered presentations like a or a , chosen for their everyday functionality yet reframed to question the boundaries of sculpture and art. further elevated this approach by designating such items as readymades, reinforcing the transformative power of artistic intent. Found objects fundamentally differ from traditional sculpture in their rejection of manual craftsmanship and the pursuit of originality through creation. Whereas traditional sculpture typically involves the artist's direct intervention—such as carving, modeling, or casting materials like stone, wood, or metal to produce a new form—found objects emphasize the unaltered or minimally modified presentation of pre-existing items, shifting the creative emphasis from production to selection and contextual reframing. This approach challenges the conventional notion of sculptural artistry as a skilled, transformative labor, instead highlighting the object's inherent qualities as they are discovered. In contrast to appropriation art, which often involves the borrowing and recontextualization of cultural images, existing artworks, or media elements to critique or subvert their original meanings, found objects center on the direct appropriation of everyday, utilitarian items without drawing from artistic or representational sources. Appropriation art, as seen in practices like those of the Pictures Generation, typically reproduces or samples visual content from advertisements, photographs, or paintings to comment on authorship and commodification, whereas found objects prioritize mundane, functional artifacts—such as household goods or natural debris—to underscore principles of selection and context shift. This distinction lies in the source material: appropriation engages with symbolic or mediated imagery, while found objects engage with tangible, non-artistic reality. Found objects also diverge from , which constructs immersive, multi-element environments that interact with space, viewer participation, and narrative elements, often incorporating found items as components within a larger setup. In found object practice, the focus remains on the isolated presentation of a single item or fragment, allowing its intrinsic properties to stand alone without the expansive, site-specific orchestration typical of installations. This prioritizes the object's standalone aesthetic or conceptual impact over environmental integration or experiential totality. Readymades represent a specific subset of found objects, originating with Marcel Duchamp's conceptualization where the artist's act of alone constitutes the primary creative intervention, often involving mass-produced items selected for their banality and exhibited with ironic titles to provoke questions about art's . Not all found objects qualify as readymades, however, as the latter demand this deliberate, unadorned designation without further modification or combination, distinguishing them from broader found object uses that may include slight alterations or integration into assemblages.

Historical Development

Early Antecedents

The concept of the found object in art has roots in earlier traditions of and repurposing everyday or unusual items, particularly evident in the 19th-century of European , known as Wunderkammern. These encyclopedic assemblages, originating in the but persisting into the , gathered an eclectic array of naturalia—such as rare minerals, exotic shells, and odd natural formations like giant bones—and artificialia, including human-made curiosities like automatons and ornate vessels crafted from unconventional materials. Collectors like Emperor Rudolf II in amassed these items not for alone but to evoke wonder and reflect the breadth of human knowledge, often displaying found oddities in specially designed rooms or cabinets that blurred the lines between nature, artifice, and rarity. This practice prefigured modern found object by elevating discarded or serendipitously discovered items to the status of aesthetic marvels, influencing later artists' interest in unaltered everyday materials. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, modernist artists drew significant inspiration from African and Oceanic ritual objects, collecting them in studios for their abstracted forms and expressive power, which challenged Western artistic conventions through stylistic influence. African sculptures and masks, such as those from the Dan and Kifwebe peoples, were acquired through colonial channels, where figures like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse appreciated their formal qualities for innovation rather than ethnographic study. Picasso, for instance, referenced Congolese and Fang masks in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), incorporating their profiles to disrupt traditional perspective and illusionism. Similarly, Oceanic art from regions like Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands—featuring ritual figures and ceremonial masks created for spiritual purposes—influenced modernists including Paul Gauguin and the German Expressionists, who valued the objects' raw, unrefined authenticity as a counterpoint to academic realism. These non-Western traditions emphasized the intrinsic power of objects in ritual contexts, laying groundwork for the found object's role in evoking primal or symbolic meanings. The movement's emergence in 1910s further developed these ideas through its roots in the Cabaret Voltaire, a hub for anti-war expression amid . Founded in 1916 by and Emmy Hennings, the cabaret hosted performances, , and collages that incorporated war-related debris—such as newspaper clippings, ticket stubs, and urban refuse—as direct critiques of and destruction. These assemblages transformed battlefield echoes and everyday into chaotic statements, rejecting bourgeois rationality and highlighting the absurdity of conflict; for example, early events featured simultaneous poems and montages that repurposed printed war propaganda to mock . This approach positioned found materials as weapons against conventional , fostering a legacy of disruption that extended into later practices. Surrealism built on these precedents by exploring found objects as portals to the unconscious, particularly in André Breton's 1928 novel Nadja. Breton documented chance encounters with urban detritus and flea-market finds—such as old photographs, masks, and street artifacts—that triggered dream-like revelations, aligning with 's Freudian emphasis on automatism and the marvelous. In Nadja, these items are not merely described but invoked as objective correlatives for desires, with Breton's narrative weaving personal reveries around unaltered objects to dissolve boundaries between reality and reverie. This literary use underscored the found object's potential to bypass rational control, influencing visual artists' adoption of similar techniques in the .

Marcel Duchamp's Readymades

played a pivotal role in elevating the found object to the status of through his invention of the readymade, a concept he first articulated in 1915 while living in New York. The readymade involved selecting everyday manufactured items and designating them as artworks, thereby shifting emphasis from traditional craftsmanship to the artist's intellectual choice. This approach marked a radical departure from conventional , challenging the notion that must be handcrafted or visually pleasing. Among Duchamp's earliest readymades was (1913), created in before his move to the , consisting of a bicycle wheel mounted upside down on a stool. This work, often considered the first readymade, transformed utilitarian objects into a nonfunctional sculpture that invited contemplation rather than visual admiration. Following this, (1914), a mass-produced metal rack for drying bottles, exemplified Duchamp's interest in ordinary industrial items, purchased from a store and presented unaltered as art. These pieces critiqued what Duchamp termed "retinal art," which he viewed as overly focused on optical pleasure at the expense of intellectual engagement. The most infamous readymade, (1917), solidified Duchamp's provocative stance; it featured a standard porcelain purchased from a plumbing supplier, signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt" (a reference to the comic strip character , implying "rich mutt" or foolish rich person), and submitted anonymously to the first exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York. The piece was rejected by the jury, sparking debate over the of art, but Duchamp arranged for it to be photographed by , ensuring its legacy. Philosophically, the readymades embodied Duchamp's anti-retinal ethos, where creativity was delegated not to manual skill but to the artist's selection process and the viewer's interpretation, underscoring the role of context and choice in elevating industrial products to artistic dignity. He described this as an "ordinary object [elevated] to the dignity of a by the mere choice of an artist." Duchamp's readymades emerged in the context of the 1913 , which introduced European to America and featured Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, drawing significant attention and influencing his later conceptual experiments upon arriving in New York in 1915. His ideas resonated deeply with the burgeoning movement, a response to World War I's absurdities, where artists like and embraced absurdity and gestures. Duchamp's works thus formalized the found object within , prioritizing intellectual provocation over aesthetic tradition and paving the way for practices.

Post-War Evolution

Following , the use of found objects in art expanded through the movement in the late 1940s and 1950s, where artists revived and adapted Marcel Duchamp's readymade concepts to critique the introspective dominance of . Robert Rauschenberg's Combines, developed from 1954 to 1964, exemplified this shift by blending painted surfaces with everyday junk such as tires, fabric, and urban debris, creating hybrid works that bridged painting and sculpture while rejecting the emotional spontaneity of in favor of incorporating real-world elements. In the 1960s, Pop Art further integrated found objects by elevating commercial products into fine art, offering pointed commentary on consumerism. Andy Warhol employed silkscreen techniques to replicate mass-produced items like Campbell's Soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles, blurring the boundaries between advertising and artistry to highlight the ubiquity and dehumanizing effects of consumer culture. Similarly, Claes Oldenburg created sculptures mimicking everyday commodities, such as his large-scale soft versions of food items in works associated with The Store (1961), satirizing the excesses of American overconsumption while questioning the commodification of art itself; his early works also incorporated urban detritus like cardboard and newspaper. The movement, active in the 1960s, extended found object practices into ephemeral performances and events, emphasizing chance and everyday actions over permanent artworks. Artists incorporated street-found items like shoes, vegetables, and household goods into interactive pieces—for instance, Alison Knowles's Make a (1962), where performers assembled and consumed found salad ingredients, or Joseph Beuys's actions involving everyday objects to provoke audience participation and blur art with life. By the 1970s and 1980s, found object art achieved greater institutionalization as museums began acquiring and exhibiting these works, marking their transition from experimentation to canonical status. However, this raised significant conservation challenges, as unaltered everyday objects—often made of degradable materials like plastics or —demanded innovative approaches to preserve both their physical form and conceptual intent without altering their original, impermanent nature.

Types and Variations

Assemblage and Collage

Assemblage represents a three-dimensional extension of , wherein artists combine disparate found objects—often everyday or discarded items—into sculptural forms through methods such as gluing, wiring, or layering to create cohesive works. This approach transforms the selected materials, drawing on core principles of found object art by repurposing ordinary items to challenge traditional notions of and composition. Pioneered by in his Merz series from 1919 through the 1940s, assemblage emphasized the integration of urban refuse like ticket stubs, wood scraps, and metal fragments into abstract or narrative structures, marking a shift toward immersive, multi-layered constructions. Schwitters' techniques involved meticulous of these elements to evoke chaotic urban life or poetic , differing markedly from the unaltered of single objects by instead building depth and relational dynamics among components. Key examples of assemblage include Joseph Cornell's shadow boxes, produced from the 1930s to the 1970s, which enclosed found miniatures such as glass spheres, seashells, and vintage photographs within wooden frames to construct intimate, memory-laden vignettes. Cornell's method relied on precise arrangements and subtle modifications—like painting surfaces or suspending elements on wires—to generate narrative effects of nostalgia and reverie, as seen in works like Medici Slot Machine (1942), where juxtaposed ephemera evoke fleeting personal histories. These boxed assemblages layered objects for both abstract visual poetry and subtle storytelling, prioritizing emotional resonance over literal representation. By the 1950s, assemblage evolved on the West Coast into a more vernacular and experimental form, influenced by Beat culture and urban detritus, with artists like Wallace Berman leading this development through verifax collages and mixed-media sculptures. Berman's works from this period, such as untitled assemblages incorporating transistor radios and printed imagery, extended Schwitters' and Cornell's layering techniques by wiring or adhering found commercial objects to critique and reimagine postwar consumerism, solidifying assemblage as a dynamic West Coast movement.

Commodity and Consumer Critique

In the realm of found object art, mass-produced consumer goods serve as potent symbols for critiquing and unchecked consumption, transforming everyday into ironic commentaries on societal values. Artists elevate branded or industrial items to expose the commodification of desire and the blurring of boundaries between utility and luxury. This approach draws from Pop Art's evolution, which repurposed advertising imagery to question mass culture's dominance. A seminal example is Andy Warhol's (1962), where silkscreened reproductions of commercial soup labels function as found objects, satirizing the repetitive nature of consumer advertising and the elevation of branded products to iconic status. By mechanically replicating these cans, Warhol highlighted the dehumanizing effects of industrial production and the way turns mundane necessities into fetishized objects, prompting viewers to confront their passive role in consumer society. Jeff Koons extended this critique through commodity sculpture in his The New series (1980–1987), displaying pristine vacuum cleaners—sourced directly from retail as unmodified found objects—encased in illuminated plexiglass like museum artifacts. These works parody the fetishization of novelty in consumer culture, where household appliances symbolize aspirational cleanliness and modernity, while their sterile presentation underscores the alienation inherent in post-industrial . Koons' later balloon animal sculptures, such as Balloon Dog (Orange) (1994–2000), further amplify this by replicating cheap party toys in polished , mocking the replication of luxury from disposable goods and the art market's own . In the 1990s and 2000s, incorporated biological specimens as found objects in works like The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), a suspended in , and Away from the Flock (1994), a preserved sheep. These pieces treat living creatures as interchangeable commodities, akin to consumer products in a , critiquing the commercialization of life and death in a biotech-driven economy where is packaged for spectacle and profit. Hirst's approach reveals how post-industrial extends commodification to the natural world, turning vulnerability into marketable . This use of found objects reflects broader economic shifts in post-industrial societies, where artists increasingly scrutinize global supply chains that prioritize endless production and distribution over or human connection. By items from these chains—be they branded cans, appliances, or even animals—creators expose the hidden costs of , such as labor exploitation and , urging a reevaluation of value beyond market metrics.

Environmental and Trash-Based Forms

Environmental and trash-based forms of found object art repurpose waste materials from landfills, streets, and natural sites to explore themes of ecological degradation, urban decay, and human impact on the planet. These practices emerged prominently in the mid-20th century and intensified in response to growing environmental awareness, transforming discarded items—such as plastics, metals, and organic debris—into sculptures and installations that critique consumerism and pollution. By elevating refuse to the status of art, creators emphasize the latent value in waste, fostering discussions on sustainability and resource cycles. A key example in trash art is Brazilian artist Vik Muniz's Pictures of Garbage series from 2008–2009, produced in collaboration with catadores (waste pickers) at the Jardim Gramacho near Rio de Janeiro. Using materials scavenged from the site's vast accumulations of garbage, Muniz and the pickers recreated oversized portraits of the workers themselves, which were then photographed to produce monumental prints sold at auction to fund community improvements. This project not only documented the laborers' lives amid Brazil's waste crisis but also demonstrated how refuse could generate economic and social value, blending portraiture with . In , Robert Smithson's (1970) exemplifies the integration of found natural and industrial materials into site-specific . Located at Rozel Point on Utah's , the 1,500-foot-long spiral coil was built by displacing about 6,650 tons of black rocks, earth, and salt crystals from the surrounding shoreline, in a scarred by abandoned oil-drilling operations. Smithson's use of these readily available elements captured the site's entropic dynamics, where industrial remnants and natural merge, symbolizing the transient relationship between human activity and geological processes. From the to the , climate activism has driven artists to incorporate ocean plastic debris into found object works, highlighting marine pollution's global scale. Japanese-American sculptor Sayaka Ganz repurposes discarded plastics, including beach trash, into kinetic animal and seascape installations that convey motion and vitality. Her 2013 public artwork Embrace, a two-story underwater , assembles household plastics and ocean-recovered debris into flowing forms of , urging reflection on plastic's persistence in waterways and its threat to . Ganz's approach, influenced by beliefs in animating objects, transforms waste into symbols of renewal while advocating for reduced consumption. Urban foraging for street trash has paralleled 2010s upcycling movements, where artists collect discarded urban materials to metaphorically address societal waste and inequality. Portuguese artist Bordalo II forages tires, scrap metal, and other roadside refuse to build hyper-realistic animal sculptures affixed to city walls, revealing the hidden components upon closer inspection to underscore pollution's toll on wildlife. Active since 2011, his Big Trash Animals series critiques overconsumption in densely populated areas, turning ephemeral street debris into durable public statements on environmental neglect. These efforts align with broader upcycling initiatives that promote circular economies in art, reducing landfill contributions while engaging communities in waste awareness.

Applications in Other Media

Music and Sound Art

In music and sound art, found objects extend beyond visual and sculptural forms to encompass auditory elements, where everyday sounds and repurposed materials become integral to composition and performance. A seminal example is John Cage's 4'33" (1952), a piece structured in three movements totaling four minutes and thirty-three seconds, during which performers remain silent, allowing ambient noises—such as coughs, rustling, or environmental hums—to constitute the "music" itself. This work reframes incidental sounds as deliberate artistic material, drawing on principles of chance operations to elevate the unintended acoustic environment. The use of found objects in instrument construction further illustrates this auditory application, particularly through improvised devices crafted from industrial discards. Composer developed his Cloud-Chamber Bowls in and refined them through the , fabricating the instruments from discarded carboys—large glass vessels originally used in radiation laboratories at the . Suspended on a frame and struck or bowed, these bowls produce microtonal resonances integrated into Partch's custom orchestra, transforming scientific scrap into a means of exploring and non-Western scales. From the to the 2000s, and sampling in hip-hop emerged as a digital extension of found practices, treating vinyl records as repositories of pre-existing audio fragments ripe for manipulation. Pioneered by DJs in New York and the Bay Area, techniques like and looping excerpted breaks, vocals, and rhythms from , , and LPs, repurposing them into new beats and compositions that critiqued consumer culture through sonic . This era's innovations, exemplified by artists such as and , democratized access to production tools like the sampler, turning recorded history into "found" digital objects for creative recombination. In contemporary sound art, field recordings—captured ambient sounds from natural or urban settings—form the basis of immersive installations, often layered with narrative to engage listeners spatially. Canadian artist Janet Cardiff's audio walks, beginning with Forest Walk (1991) at the Banff Centre for the Arts, guide participants through sites via binaural headphones, blending her recorded footsteps and voice with on-site environmental noises to create disorienting, site-specific experiences. Works like The Missing Voice (Case Study B) (1999), commissioned by Artangel for London's East End, incorporate historical and fictional elements into these recordings, positioning found urban sounds as a medium for exploring and .

Literature and Performance

A seminal development occurred in the with William S. Burroughs's , co-developed with , which involved physically slicing pages from existing texts—such as newspapers, novels, or personal writings—and rearranging the fragments to generate new compositions. This method, first systematically applied in Burroughs's works like Naked Lunch (1959), treated printed matter as found objects, emphasizing and the potential for language to expose societal undercurrents through random juxtaposition. Burroughs described the process as a way to "cut the word lines" of control, allowing unintended narratives to emerge from discarded or commonplace sources. Found poetry further exemplifies this integration in the 1970s, where poets like Bern Porter transformed ephemera such as junk mail, advertisements, instruction manuals, and newspaper clippings into poetic forms by isolating and reframing their visual and textual elements. Porter's collection Found Poems (1972), published by Something Else Press, compiled these "Founds" to critique consumer culture, presenting mass-media detritus as absurd yet profound verse that highlighted the inherent in everyday waste. His approach underscored the narrative potential of overlooked materials, turning disposable items into commentaries on and cultural . In , found objects gain immediacy through bodily interaction, often in endurance-based works that test human limits and audience complicity. Marina Abramović's (1974), performed at Galleria Studio Morra in , placed the artist passively amid 72 everyday items—including a , , a , , a , and bullets—inviting viewers to use them on her body over six hours without intervention. This setup transformed ordinary objects into tools of potential violence or tenderness, revealing the volatile interpretations imposed on the mundane and emphasizing the performative ephemerality of consent and object agency. Abramović later reflected that the work exposed how found items could shift from innocuous to threatening based on social dynamics. Theater extends this practice in devised works, where ensembles improvise with street-found objects as props to foster spontaneity and site-specific narratives. In experimental and collaborative theater, performers scavenge urban debris—like discarded bottles, fabrics, or signage—to construct scenes , bypassing scripted realism for emergent that mirrors life's impermanence. This approach, rooted in ensemble creation processes, animates found items to embody characters or environments, as seen in object theater exercises where a might become a or a through mimetic . Such methods, integral to devised theater , encourage actors to derive meaning from the object's inherent qualities, promoting creative of in live, unrehearsed contexts.

Theoretical and Critical Perspectives

Aesthetic and Philosophical Debates

The use of found objects in art has sparked profound aesthetic and philosophical debates, particularly regarding the of art and the criteria that distinguish artistic creation from everyday objects. These discussions challenge traditional notions of , authorship, and artistic value, emphasizing , , and over inherent qualities. Central to these debates is the question of whether an object's designation as art depends on its material properties or on interpretive frameworks imposed by cultural institutions. Arthur Danto's institutional theory of art, articulated in his 1964 essay "The Artworld," posits that the status of a found object as art is conferred not by its intrinsic features but by its placement within the "artworld"—a network of theories, institutions, and interpretive practices. Danto illustrates this through Andy Warhol's Brillo Boxes (1964), identical in appearance to commercial soapbox cartons, arguing that their artistic identity emerges solely from the artworld's contextual recognition, which separates them from mere utilitarian items. This theory underscores how found objects blur the boundary between art and non-art, relying on communal aesthetic discourse rather than formal qualities to validate their status. Anti-aesthetic arguments further complicate these debates by critiquing the privileging of and visual pleasure in traditional . In her 1985 collection The Originality of the and Other Modernist Myths, Rosalind Krauss examines readymades as subversive acts that dismantle norms of originality and aesthetic harmony, transforming mundane objects into through ironic detachment rather than enhancement of form or . Krauss contends that this approach exposes the constructed nature of aesthetic value, where found objects reject retinal appeal—echoing Marcel Duchamp's brief anti-retinal stance that should prioritize intellectual engagement over visual sensation—to provoke reflection on the medium's conventions. By subverting expectations of sculptural integrity and , such works deconstruct modernism's foundational myths, repositioning found objects as critiques of aesthetic itself. Debates on authorship in found object art draw heavily from Walter Benjamin's concept of the "," the unique presence tied to an artwork's authenticity and . In his essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical ," Benjamin argues that mechanical reproduction erodes this aura by detaching the artwork from its singular origin, making it reproducible and accessible yet devoid of ritualistic authenticity. Applied to found objects, this framework highlights how appropriation of mass-produced or discarded items strips away traditional authorship, as the artist's role shifts from creator to selector, diminishing the object's originary "aura" and democratizing art through its . This loss challenges romantic notions of the artist-genius, positioning found objects as inherently anti-authorial, where value derives from cultural displacement rather than individual invention. Postmodern perspectives extend these ideas through Jean Baudrillard's theory of simulacra, which views consumer culture as a realm of hyperreal signs detached from reality. In Simulacra and Simulation (1981), Baudrillard describes how objects in late capitalism become simulations—copies without originals—that circulate as signs of status rather than use-value. When applied to found objects sourced from consumer waste, this lens reveals them as embodiments of simulacra, where everyday commodities are recontextualized not to reclaim authenticity but to expose the emptiness of their signifying systems. Baudrillard's analysis implies that such artworks thrive in a postmodern condition of endless replication, further eroding distinctions between original and copy, and critiquing the commodified spectacle that found objects both mimic and undermine.

Socio-Political Implications

Found objects have served as potent tools for artists to interrogate and subvert socio-political power structures, including class hierarchies, colonial legacies, environmental exploitation, and norms of and identity. By discarded or marginalized materials, these works challenge dominant narratives, highlighting inequalities and urging societal reflection on consumption, representation, and exclusion. This approach democratizes artistic production, transforming everyday refuse into critiques of systemic . In the realm of class critique, found objects drawn from cheap or discarded items have been employed to democratize , particularly in 1960s feminist practices that elevated domestic trash to expose the undervalued labor of women and lower classes. ' "Manifesto for Maintenance Art 1969!" proposed using garbage and maintenance tasks—such as cleaning and waste handling—as artistic media to affirm the dignity of repetitive, low-status work often performed by women in the home or by underpaid sanitation workers. Her interventions, like handshaking with sanitation workers in the 1970s, extended this by incorporating actual trash from public systems, critiquing how class divisions render such labor invisible while making accessible beyond elite materials. This tradition continues in contemporary feminist art, such as Lilibeth Hernández's 2022 installations using domestic waste to address migrant labor inequities. Regarding , artists in the repurposed ethnographic "found" artifacts from collections to dismantle postcolonial power dynamics and challenge Western appropriations of non-Western cultures. Fred Wilson's Mining the Museum (1992) at the Maryland Historical Society rearranged institutional objects, such as slave shackles juxtaposed with ornate silverware and ethnographic masks displayed alongside slave auction blocks, to expose the erased histories of enslavement and cultural plunder embedded in American narratives. Similarly, and Guillermo Gómez-Peña's performance The Couple in the Cage: Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West (1992–1994) incorporated found ethnographic props like grass skirts and voodoo dolls alongside Western consumer items, satirizing colonial exhibitions and the fetishization of indigenous bodies as primitive curiosities. More recent works, such as Ibrahim Ahmed's 2021 assemblages using street-found textiles to explore colonial legacies and cultural identity in , build on this by addressing ongoing neocolonial structures. Environmental politics have seen found objects from plastic waste transformed into sculptures and installations that activist-artists use to confront consumerism and ecological devastation, with practices continuing into the 2020s. Chris Jordan's Midway: Message from the Gyre series (2009–ongoing) assembles photographs and assemblages of plastic debris ingested by albatrosses on Midway Atoll, visualizing the scale of ocean pollution—such as Laysan albatross chicks filled with bottle caps and toys—to indict global overconsumption and corporate waste. These works, often scaled to represent millions of discarded items, have shifted public discourse toward anti-consumerist activism, emphasizing the environmental marginalization of polluted ecosystems. Recent examples include Nguyen E. Smith's 2024 Bundle House assemblages at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, using found materials to critique the environmental impacts of the Black diaspora and global waste flows. In explorations of and identity, found objects in have functioned as metaphors for marginalization, repurposing junk to disrupt normative expectations and affirm non-conforming experiences. Installations along Atlanta's Doll's Head (initiated ), for instance, incorporate scavenged trash like discarded toys and appliances into displays such as "Toxic ," using to critique rigid gender performances and the disposability of marginalized identities within and broader social contexts. This approach echoes broader practices that reclaim societal "waste" to challenge heteronormative structures, fostering visibility for fluid identities, as seen in exhibits utilizing personal artifacts and to preserve diverse histories.

Notable Artists and Works

Pioneering Figures

Marcel Duchamp is widely regarded as the originator of the readymade, a form of found object art where everyday manufactured items are selected and presented as artworks without alteration, challenging traditional notions of artistic creation and aesthetic value. His most infamous readymade, Fountain (1917), consisted of a porcelain urinal purchased from a sanitary ware supplier, signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt" and placed on its back to resemble a sculpture. Duchamp submitted Fountain to the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York, an organization he co-founded to promote avant-garde art without jury approval, but it was rejected by the board on grounds that it did not qualify as art, prompting Duchamp's resignation from the society. This controversy highlighted the readymade's provocative intent to question institutional definitions of art, influencing subsequent generations of artists. Man Ray, a key figure in Dada and Surrealism, integrated found objects with photographic elements to create hybrid assemblages that explored themes of time, memory, and destruction. His Indestructible Object (1923, originally titled Object to Be Destroyed) features a standard with a black-and-white photograph of an eye—believed to be that of his former lover —attached to the pendulum via a paperclip. Accompanying instructions directed viewers to "cut out the eye from the photograph of one who has been loved but is seen no more" and attach it to the , regulating its beat "for the duration of a length of time as short or as long as the individual’s capacity for listening," thereby transforming the functional device into a poignant on loss. The work blended the found object of the with manipulated , a signature of 's practice, and was remade multiple times; a 1957 exhibition version was literally destroyed by protesting students, after which reconstructed it and retitled it Indestructible Object. Kurt Schwitters, a German artist associated with , pioneered large-scale installations constructed entirely from urban refuse and discarded materials, elevating trash into architectural forms that critiqued consumer society. Beginning in 1923, he transformed rooms in his apartment into the Merzbau, an evolving, immersive environment built from scavenged debris such as wood scraps, broken furniture, newspapers, and plaster casts, which he termed "Merz" from a fragment of a poem. The Merzbau grew over more than a decade to occupy eight rooms, incorporating grotto-like spaces, niches for personal mementos, and abstract sculptures, serving as both a personal archive and a total artwork. Schwitters continued similar projects in exile after fleeing in 1937, creating a second Merzbau in (1937–1940) and a third, the Merz Barn, in England's (1947–1948) using local found materials, though the original structure was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943. Joseph Cornell, an American self-taught artist aligned with , created intimate "shadow boxes"—glass-fronted wooden enclosures filled with meticulously arranged found ephemera—to evoke dreamlike, narrative vignettes of longing, exploration, and the passage of time. Working primarily from onward in his , New York studio, Cornell sourced materials like vintage photographs, maps, glass beads, dried flowers, and theatrical souvenirs from thrift stores and junk shops, assembling them into poetic micro-worlds that suggested surreal stories without literal depiction. For instance, his boxes often featured celestial motifs, such as starry skies with orbiting wooden balls, or homages to figures like ballerina Fanny Cerrito, using cutouts and trinkets to conjure nostalgia and psychological depth. First exhibited in 1932 as part of a Surrealist group show at Julian Levy Gallery, these assemblages prioritized and containment to transform ordinary discards into evocative, self-contained universes.

Contemporary Practitioners

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, continued to innovate with found objects through his Gluts series (1980s), which repurposed scrap metal, rubber, and other industrial discards into large-scale assemblages critiquing consumer excess and overproduction. These works, often suspended or arranged in dynamic configurations, extended his earlier Combines by emphasizing the chaotic abundance of post-industrial waste, transforming junkyard remnants into monumental statements on material obsolescence. Brazilian artist advanced social commentary through his Pictures of Garbage series (2008), recreating portraits of waste pickers from Brazil's Jardim Gramacho landfill using the very garbage they collected, such as plastic bottles and food wrappers, to highlight and labor in global waste economies. Photographed from afar to mimic classical paintings, these large-scale installations were later auctioned to fund community improvements, underscoring the transformative potential of discarded materials in addressing socioeconomic inequities. Ghanaian sculptor , based in , gained international acclaim in the 2000s for his bottle-cap tapestries, weaving thousands of aluminum bottle tops and seals from liquor waste into shimmering, draped wall hangings that evoke while confronting globalization's environmental footprint. Works like Dusasa II (2007) layer these found elements to create fluid, site-specific installations that symbolize the flow of commodities across borders and the cultural hybridity born from colonial legacies and modern consumption. The 2020s have seen found objects expand into digital realms, where net artists repurpose ephemera like memes and AI-generated fragments as virtual assemblages critiquing online culture's disposability. American artist exemplifies this in Related to Your Interests (2020–2021), a series of 855 bot-scripted videos assembled from scraped and repurposed , including algorithmic outputs and viral clips, to explore machine learning's role in commodifying . Post-pandemic, artists have increasingly incorporated medical waste into climate-focused works, repurposing items like discarded masks and biocaps to address healthcare's environmental toll amid global health crises. For instance, Project Art Heals (2021–2022), led by Emily Hagn at the , transformed upcycled medical waste into visual installations that symbolized healing from burnout while raising awareness of single-use plastics' contribution to . Similarly, UW Health's initiative (initiated in 2016 and ongoing into the 2020s) crafts sculptures from recycled biocaps to visualize hidden hospital waste streams and advocate for sustainable practices in the face of . Recent examples include artist , who creates intricate from found urban garbage and everyday discards, transforming waste into culturally significant pieces that address Indigenous perspectives on consumption; his work was recognized with the 2024 Sobey Art Award.

References

  1. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/found-object
  2. https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/found-object
  3. https://www.theartstory.org/definition/readymade-and-found-object/
  4. https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1880_300062228.pdf
  5. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/assemblage
  6. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/r/readymade
  7. https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/glossary-terms/found-material
  8. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/global-culture/concepts-in-art-1980-to-now/beginners-guide-1980/a/what-is-appropriation
  9. https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/collecting-for-the-kunstkammer
  10. https://contemporary.burlington.org.uk/journal/journal/african-art-as-found-object
  11. https://www.metmuseum.org/met-publications/oceania-art-of-the-pacific-islands-in-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art
  12. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/dada/
  13. https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Art/Western_Art_from_18th_to_Mid-20th_Century_%28Taylor%29/01%253A_Chapters/1.09%253A_Futurism_Dada_and_World_War_I
  14. https://www.moma.org/artists/768-andre-breton
  15. https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/readymades
  16. https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/marcel-duchamp-1887-1968
  17. https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/dada/marcel-duchamp-and-the-readymade
  18. https://smarthistory.org/dada-readymades/
  19. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/neo-dada/
  20. https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2005/robert-rauschenberg
  21. https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/galleries/series/combines-1954-64
  22. https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/pop-art
  23. https://www.thecollector.com/consumerism-pop-art/
  24. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/fluxus/
  25. https://smarthistory.org/fluxus/
  26. https://www.tate.org.uk/research/reshaping-the-collectible/research-approach-conservation
  27. https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/challenges-of-conservation/
  28. https://www.theartstory.org/definition/assemblage/
  29. https://www.theartstory.org/artist/schwitters-kurt/
  30. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2022/04/26/arbiter-of-tumultuous-times-kurt-schwitters/
  31. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/joseph-cornell-shadow-boxes-assemblage-art
  32. https://www.theartstory.org/artist/cornell-joseph/
  33. https://www.nortonsimon.org/art/detail/P.1967.11/
  34. https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/933
  35. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jul/05/jeff-koons-people-respond-to-banal-things-they-dont-accept-their-own-history
  36. https://publicdelivery.org/jeff-koons-the-new/
  37. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jeff-koons-2368/jeff-koons-banality-decadence-and-easyfun
  38. https://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate-papers/08/replication-and-decay-in-damien-hirst-natural-history
  39. https://magazine.art21.org/2009/04/29/for-the-love-of-god-the-artist-as-capitalist/
  40. https://academicjournals.org/journal/JFSA/article-full-text-pdf/373F9FF73126
  41. https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii98/articles/luc-boltanski-arnaud-esquerre-the-economic-life-of-things
  42. https://www.artforum.com/features/catherine-quan-damman-on-sung-tieu-and-the-art-of-derivative-critique-252573/
  43. https://www.artnews.com/list/art-in-america/features/recycling-art-portfolio-1234700212/
  44. https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/waste-land/
  45. https://time.com/3775724/portraits-with-purpose-vik-muniz-in-waste-land/
  46. https://www.sarasotaartmuseum.org/vik-muniz/
  47. https://holtsmithsonfoundation.org/spiral-jetty
  48. https://www.diaart.org/visit/visit-our-locations-sites/robert-smithson-spiral-jetty
  49. https://smarthistory.org/robert-smithson-spiral-jetty/
  50. https://inhabitat.com/artist-sayaka-ganz-unveils-underwater-ecosystem-made-from-recycled-beach-plastic/sayaka-ganz-embrace-recycled-plastic-art/
  51. https://sayakaganz.com/
  52. https://www.kiarts.org/exhibition/luminescence-from-salvage-to-seascape-sculpture-by-sayaka-ganz/
  53. https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/09/bordalo-ii-trash-sculptures/
  54. https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/2025/03/06/bordalo-iis-irreversible-when-trash-talks-back/
  55. https://magazine.art21.org/2016/03/18/material-renewal-four-artists-turning-trash-into-art/
  56. https://www.npr.org/2000/05/08/1073885/4-33
  57. https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/4632/
  58. https://www.harrypartch.com/instruments
  59. https://johnroach.net/cloud-chamber-bowls-harry-partch/
  60. https://www.pointblankmusicschool.com/blog/sampling-history-development-techniques/
  61. https://blog.pioneerdj.com/dj-culture/the-most-important-events-in-turntablism-history/
  62. https://cardiffmiller.com/walks/
  63. https://www.banffcentre.ca/listening-devices/forest-walk
  64. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33254672
  65. https://www.briongysin.com/cut-ups/
  66. https://www.oeln.net/cut-ups
  67. https://hyperallergic.com/46831/bern-porters-found-poems/
  68. https://nightboat.org/book/found-poems/
  69. https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2010/lostandfound/
  70. https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/5177
  71. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/sep/25/marina-abramovics-shocking-rhythm-0-performance-shows-why-we-still-cannot-trust-people-in-power
  72. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abramovic-rhythm-0-t14875
  73. https://thedramateacher.com/object-theatre/
  74. https://www.theatrefolk.com/blog/exercise-found-objects
  75. https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8974be18-f41b-478a-87ab-82fa2e4616fe/content
  76. https://www.helsinki.fi/assets/drupal/2024-03/Danto-Artworld-1964.pdf
  77. https://monoskop.org/images/d/df/Krauss_Rosalind_E_The_Originality_of_the_Avant-Garde_and_Other_Modernist_Myths_1985.pdf
  78. https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/benjamin.pdf
  79. https://monoskop.org/images/7/7e/Baudrillard_Jean_Simulacra_and_Simulation_1981.pdf
  80. https://www.makejusticenormal.org/resources/mierle-laderman-ukeles-manifesto-for-maintenance-art-1969
  81. https://www.thewadsworth.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Matrix-137.pdf
  82. https://www.artdaily.com/news/2022/05/16/lilibeth-hernandez-explores-migrant-labor-through-found-objects-in-new-exhibition
  83. https://bmoreart.com/2017/05/how-mining-the-museum-changed-the-art-world.html
  84. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/postcolonial-art/
  85. https://www.arabnews.com/node/1904066/lifestyle
  86. https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2019/06/17/finding-grace-through-waste-intolerable-beauty
  87. http://www.chrisjordan.com/
  88. https://www.bostonartreview.com/read/displacement-massart-art-museum-shana-dumont-garr
  89. https://pirjournal.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2025/08/25/restorationland-the-lost-found-objects-of-atlantas-dolls-head-trail/
  90. https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/bitstreams/e4db7c1d-9501-4f94-b7fc-0da864ec6e82/download
  91. https://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/5069/releases/MOMA_1973_0140_105.pdf
  92. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/81209
  93. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/man-ray-indestructible-object-t07614
  94. https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/07/09/in-search-of-lost-art-kurt-schwitterss-merzbau/
  95. https://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate-papers/08/kurt-schwitters-reconstructions-of-the-merzbau
  96. https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_327288.pdf
  97. https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/rauschenberg-gluts-2
  98. https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/artist/mid-career-1970s-1980s
  99. https://artmargins.com/vik-munizs-pictures-of-garbage-and-the-aesthetics-of-poverty/
  100. https://jackshainman.com/uploads/11800118/1646947023815/Anatsui_Press_Kit-compressed_1.pdf
  101. https://esse.ca/en/el-anatsui-from-the-garbage-bins-of-nsukka-to-international-museums/
  102. https://www.lissongallery.com/studio/related-to-your-interests-cory-arcangel-on-bots-algorithms-machine-learning-and-ai
  103. https://sustainability.utah.edu/project-art-heals-illustrating-healing-through-upcycled-medical-waste/
  104. https://sustainability.wisc.edu/recycled-medical-waste-creates-sustainable-art/
  105. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/nico-williams-beaded-art-everyday-objetcs-1.6247271
Add your contribution
Related Hubs
Contribute something
User Avatar
No comments yet.