Friday, July 04, 2008
BACKYARD WONDERLAND: Yes, in my backyard
By Ryn Gargulinski
I got a yard. I got some sheet metal. I got some spray paint.
I got me a BACKYARD WONDERLAND.
The last few weekends have been spent toiling over bent metal and amassing enough debris to transform my backyard into a magical place.
Now, the debris is not just any ordinary debris, but debris carefully chosen from Gerson’s Salvage, perfectly picked out of the nearby Rillito River riverbed or even combed from other people’s Dumpsters.
A lot of thought, back bending metal bending and spray paint went into my BACKYARD WONDERLAND.
Three things have influenced me in this glorious project:
1. Tucson’s Valley of the Moon: a 1920s-era fantasy land that has weirdo faces peeking out of the bushes and a magic troll bridge.
2. Detroit’s Heidelberg Project: hunks of junk collected, arranged and stuck to houses down a downtown block. The last time we went there was a yard full of neatly arranged shoes and a home with its siding stuck with stuffed animals.
3. That tall leaning thing in the Avenue B community garden in New York’s Alphabet City.
The several story structure was adorned with doll parts, Big Wheel chunks, nuts, bolts and just about everything else before it had to be torn down just this year as it began to lean and sway precariously.
So far I’ve got the Moon’s weirdo faces, Detroit’s nod to debris and a few trellises along the back wall that lean and sway precariously.
My mom thinks I also have a yard so crammed with art that the dogs have nowhere to play. I’d never do that to my canines. Heck, they can easily run around the debris.
Hope you have as much fun viewing the photos below as I did creating the art.
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