Creating art from recycled everyday items is not a new idea; in fact it started with Marcel Duchamp’s famous urinal turned into art, titled ‘Fountain’. Following many modern artists experimenting with new materials, art from everyday items was made popular by Andy Warhol’s iconic Campbell Soup in the 1960s. However, with environmental issues high on the agenda it has become more popular than ever for artists to use discarded items to create their works, known as ‘upcycling’.
Tokyo-born artist Yuri Suzuki is heavily influenced by this recycling movement and has integrated this interest with his passions for music and technology. Suzuki’s recycled projects have included a scalextric-inspired record player, which used small sections of old vinyl records made into a track, along which an instrument was run to create and magnify the sound. He also made a musical kettle that whistles the tune of your choice, as an exploration of normal household noises.
Suzuki’s latest project encompasses this spirit of recycling for art, but is also influenced by the DIY culture of Jamaica. Working with designer Matthew Kneebone, he used thousands of Red Stripe beer cans collected, in part, at Notting Hill Carnival, to make an enormous working sound system. The two and half metre projection, which used over five thousand of the red-and-white-striped cans, was made by taping and tying cans together in sections and arranging them in a specific layout around a simple wooden frame.
Suzuki was inspired by the Jamaican culture and music that are synonymous with the Notting Hill Carnival. Musicians Gappy Ranks and Al Fingers helped launch the project by creating some original Reggae music through the sound system.