Smash it up: Glassphemy art installation makes recycling fun and cathartic

you see a dumpster, I see a pool; photo by Kevin H (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

How do disillusioned, arty Manhattanites recycle without getting bored out of their ultra-hip, urban skulls? They smash it up.

New York artist David Belt has created a project called ‘Glassphemy!’ where patrons can at once recycle and purge their violent impulses by spectacularly smashing glass bottles into a massive Plexiglas structure. The bottle throwers are lifted on a platform above the 30-foot (6 meter) clear rectangle, where they can aim and fire at people standing on the other side of the bulletproof glass. The impact of the bottles triggers flashing lights, adding to the spectacle. It reminds me a bit of a restaurant in the Philippines I read about a few years ago, where customers can get their aggressions out by chucking crockery at a wall. Primal, but such a waste.

Glassphemy, on the other hand, has a bit of an eco-theme. After the bottles are smashed, the broken glass gets recycled on site into material for other art projects, such as sculptures. It’s a fun opportunity to release all that pent up rage that so many high-strung New Yorkers must harbor, but without any green guilt. At the same time, the throwers get to participate in a cool art installation.

From an article in the New York Times:

The immediate and visible reuse also helps counter the widespread suspicion that recyclables are just thrown out anyway. Though for logistical reasons, “Glassphemy!” will not generally be open to the public — the lot where it sits is hidden from the street — people who send good recycling ideas to the Macro Sea Web site, macro-sea.com, may earn an invitation with the address, Mr. Belt said.

Before making the Glassphemy installation, David Belt received notoriety for turning dumpsters into swimming pools – yet another artsy way for affluent New Yorkers to safely live out their squalid urban fantasies.