AIRE at the Landfill highlights waste, Whelan’s work
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dj whelan is this year's AIRE artist In residence at the Jefferson County Waste Transfer Station. An unveiling of her work installed in the transfer station's sculpture garden takes place Monday, Oct. 27 at 5pm. Photo by Kathie Meyer [/caption]
Art news by Kathie Meyer
There are two kinds of people: those who wish to delve within piles of refuse at the county dump, and those who think the idea is nothing but icky.
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"balancing the books," assemblage from discards, dj Whelan [/caption]
dj whelan, who uses lowercase letters in her name, is proudly the former personality type. She is this year’s A.I.R.E. resident artist. A.I.R.E. stands for Artist In Residence and Education, which means that whelan had access to dump discards for a few months at the Jefferson County Solid Waste Transfer Station in order to make art out of whatever inspired her.
“Given free rein in the dump pile is kind of like a dream come true,” said whelan. Although she is relatively new to the local art scene, she is not new to assemblage and all of the different ways and means of acquiring materials to reimagine. When whelan moved to the outskirts of Port Townsend in 2021, she started an art gallery/sculpture garden scene on her property where she hosts quarterly art shows, including live music and refreshments. That endeavor is called The Art Farm .
“I’ve been working with this kind of material for 40 years – doing assemblage, construction, garden work, outdoor installations, and that kind of stuff. Trash just makes the most sense to me,” she said.
Phenomena of our garbage
Tracy Grisman, a local artist and self-described “community practitioner,” modeled A.I.R.E. after the Artist in Residence Program at Recology San Francisco, which she learned about as a student at Goddard College. She very much wanted the program here to be a success, so she did her research and contacted Deborah Munk, Manager AIR / Environmental Learning Center, for guidance on where to begin.
Next, she made a proposal to Solid Waste Division Manager Al Cairns and Skookum’s recycling contractor Alysa Thomas. Two weeks later, Cairns wrote back, saying he had spoken with the landfill manager, and approval had been given.
The first year, Grisman said, they didn’t choose an artist at all, but instead worked the dump floor with others to solve problems before they became bigger ones, devise safety standards, and other protocols.
“We did a pilot project. I basically wrote a handbook by being out there in real time. We took a whole year to figure out how to do it,” said Grisman, who quoted the “iconic trash action queen” – Mierle Laderman Ukeles – in her proposal. Grisman also gives credit to Adrianna Santiago, Margie McDonald, and Micah Wallace for their assistance in getting the program off the ground. Local 2020’s Beyond Waste group is now the program’s umbrella nonprofit.
The “phenomena of our garbage” drives Grisman. According to her, 330 million Americans throw out about 3-5 pounds a day, on average. “We should be freaking out!” she said.
“I’m very passionate about repurposing, reusing. I’m thrilled that dj was such a great resident this year. Her pieces are really fluid. It’s really shows her art and style.”
The E in A.I.R.E.
While whelan’s pieces made from her residency, 15 of them showing at The Grover Gallery this month, are indeed remarkable in their fluidity and style, whelan also mentions the future of our local landfill, as does Grisman. The educational aspect of this residency is a big part of the artist’s agreement, and both take it seriously.
Because Jefferson County experienced population growth between 2010 and 2020 that outpaced the rest of the nation, a new landfill site is desperately needed. Last year, a task force (of which Grisman is a part) chose a County-owned property located at the intersection of State Routes 19 and 104, and the opportunity to do better is now presenting itself. See: https://jeffersoncountysolidwaste.com/solid-waste-facility-replacement-project/ for more information.
Both whelan and Grisman want to see more ways to salvage items not really ready for destruction and are pushing for them with the right people. A “pick dump” where people pay a certain fee to go in and “pick” through things to take home is appealing to whelan. Grisman would like to see repair cafes. These ideas are ones that are not suitable for the current landfill site because of liability issues, they said.
“They’re listening,” Grisman said.
Tiny pieces with stories
The siren call of someone else’s garbage does not land on the ears of everyone, but when it does hit the mark, the reasons are different for each person. For some, it may be economic, but for others, like whelan and Grisman, they can be the same reasons artists create with any medium.
“Each little tiny piece has a story,” Grisman said. “It’s giving it another life in a creative way. It also brings to light the magnitude of waste.
“It’s about having fun,” she said.
To keep the stories alive, another part of the agreement between the artists and the program administrators is that each artist creates a piece installed at the landfill. Big or small, each piece recognizes its residency and provides a lasting educational legacy of the program.
whelan’s piece joins that of the first two AIRE artists – Carol Rashawnna Williams and Margie McDonald – and is set to be unveiled on Monday, Oct. 27 at 5 pm at the Jefferson County Solid Waste Transfer Station. Whelan also presents an artist talk about her work on Friday, October 24, at 6 pm at The Grover Gallery, 238 Taylor St., where her work is on view through October.
