Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap

Western Folklore, Summer 2000 by Livengood, R Mark

Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap. Edited by Charlene Cerny and Suzanne Seriff. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, 1996. Pp. 208, 136 illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95 paper)

On the outskirts of New Delhi, an inveterate salvager risks his high caste status for the sake of his convictions by crafting toys and utilitarian objects from the metal, plastic, and paper scraps he collects at that megalopolis' bazaars. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, a retired junkyard owner, thoughts of the Guinness Book of World Records weighing on his mind, rigs his trailer home with thousands of hooked-together aluminum pop-tops, radiant in the Florida sunshine. And in the Port-au-Prince iron market, two Vodou priests and artists assemble the debris of Haiti's major city-car parts, slivers of mirror, dolls-into "mojo boards" that honor Vodou deities.

What links such diverse people and manifold agendas resulting in the production of things in disparate places? According to folklorist Suzanne Seriff it is the "act of recovering and transforming the detritus of the industrial age into handmade objects of renewed meaning, utility, devotion, and sometimes arresting beauty" which contain "visual, material, and conceptual reference to multiple technologies, histories, and temporalities." She terms this process "intercultural recycling" (9-10). Not to be confused with official, please-separate-glass-from-plastic curbside recycling programs, this vernacular process is the subject of Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art fiom the Global Scrap Heap, a volume that complements the traveling exhibition opened at Santa Fe's Museum of International Folk Art in May 1996.

Co-curators and editors Charlene Cerny and Seriff have grouped the thirteen essays of Recycled, Re-Seen, save the introduction and afterword, into four parts: "Recycling and Transformation of the American Landscape"; "Recycling and the Global Marketplace"; "Recycling in the Streets"; and "Wearing the Other, Transforming the Self," The reader's Grand Tour of the global, jerry-built village takes off from America, eventually landing him or her in Mexico, Trinidad, and Kenya, among other ports of call. Essays facilitate an understanding of "intercultural recycling" by illuminating the "broad range of motivating factors and aesthetic sensibilities that influence how, why, and for whom these refabricated objects are produced and consumed" (22).

In line with divergent disciplinary imperatives, authors utilize historical, sociocultural, and/or behavioral approaches to contextualize the objects of the exhibition. Some writers integrate several perspectives within a single article. Although many contributors discuss individual makers, no matter how briefly, most essays represent a broad cultural approach as authors explore how objects made from cast-off materials symbolically express ethnic or national identity, materialize philosophical and religious tenets, or reflect a group's aesthetic ideals. An exception is "Sci-Fi Machines and Bottle-Cap Kings," in which Joanne Cubbs and Eugene W. Metcalf, Jr. focus on the work and lives of two American artisans, investigating the mens' motivations and the role expressive behavior plays in formulating their identities. Regardless of primary perspectives, all of the articles argue, implicitly or explicitly, that intercultural recycling must be understood in local terms, studied from the inside-out, not the outside-in.

In such a diverse collection, some essays are bound to be more compelling in their insights, nuanced in their observations, and engaging in their exposition than others. Fortunately, authors transcend the "argument" that making new things out of old `junk" is often an economic necessity, particularly in the developing world, and move on, by and large, to interesting questions. Research findings are presented in different styles, ranging from syrupy to sassy, footnote heavy (footnotes of footnotes) to a form of fieldwork chronicle. Cerny and Seriff have fully exploited these varieties in their thoughtful sequencing of essays; productive juxtapositions occasion an interesting meter to the publication as a whole. Unfortunately, works cited in several essays do not appear in the substantial bibliography; such inattention to detail is surprising for a volume published by a major press. Allen F. Roberts has composed one of the most spirited essays, "The Ironies of System D." Anchoring his discussion in local concepts, Roberts explores "recycling" in West Africa in a variety of contexts. He skillfully synthesizes the interpretations and ideas of local people with his own and other scholars, presenting them in clean, vivid prose accompanied by evocative photographs.

Indeed, images are an integral part of how an exhibition catalog, such as Recycled, Re-Seen, conveys information. This seems particularly so if one assumes that many museum visitors and/or readers of accompanying volumes often exert more effort looking at objects or pictures of objects than reading labels or essays. That is, the visual often takes precedence over the textual. The images in such publications, therefore, constitute a visual narrative, if you will, which may be considered for its interface with the text or examined independently.