Today’s featured artist is the talented Calder Kamin from Austin, Texas.
 |
Kamin is an artist, educator and advocate who transforms trash into “beautifully crafted creatures and opportunities to inspire others to be creative and courageous about the future”.
She is motivated to eliminate waste by reimagining it as art. This ability to reuse and adapt is found endlessly in Nature. Nature is resilient and we all adapt, even as we discover that plastic has become incorporated into the bodies of all living things. Welcome to the Anthropocene!
 |
| Deer in flower installation by Calder Kamin – photo from artistcommunities.org |
In her 2016 solo show Plastic Planet, Kamin is inspired by taxidermy when creating her whimsical menagerie of colourful animals made of plastic bags. The ominous reality of the material used contrasts strongly with the playful rendering of the animals.
 |
| Detail of plastic animal by Calder Kamin – photo from Austin Central Library |
Another interesting subject broached by Kamin in the work Ripple Effects is that of pharmaceuticals, and specifically women’s contraceptives which are a source of non-recyclable plastic. She transforms them into frogs and displays them in collections of 28 to represent the cycle.
 |
| Fox plastic taxidermy by Calder Kamin – photo by Philip Rogers |
Because there is a plastic bag ban in Austin, Kamin has to scavenge plastic bags from her friends and gets them shipped to her as they are one of the main resources used in her work. She says that she scavenges for her materials, just like the animals scavenge for food in urban areas. These are the animals she depicts: ones which thrive in a human world such as foxes, racoons and squirrels.
 |
| Squirrel by Calder Kamin – photo from plasticpollutioncoalition.org |
Her work is neither condemning plastic waste nor idealising a pristine ‘pre-human’ natural world, her point is subtler. Kamin explores the relationship between humans and non-human animals as we coevolve in these modern times.
 |
| Squirrel by Calder Kamin – photo from plasticpollutioncoalition.org |
Calder Kamin embraces the power of education to promote environmental stewardship in her Neocortex Classroom. Through educational activities and enduring optimism, Calder encourages a new view of trash.
Here is a fun video of her explaining some of her techniques.
 |
| Calder Kamin – photo from expressnews.com |
Thank you Calder for all your hard work, beautiful art and
inspirational optimism!
Check out this video of Calder talking about her Plastic Planet exhibition for the Women & their Work Gallery.
Check out Calder Kamin’s Instagram for more up-to-date artworks.
Stay tuned on Make Art Not Waste to discover our weekly trash artist features.