This series en d, I'm a Piece of Garbage, involves dragging in discarded items from the street and painting self deprecating phrases on them. Gui Machado to photographed them on pristine, bright happy backgrounds, producing both a number of physical s as well as a set of prints for this series.
Like these old items, this series is about having character but not always being desirable, current or flashy. Using sign painting, a very traditional medium, to paint on drab, discarded s and then photographing them on backgrounds with heavy saturation compounds the dueling aesthetics of trash versus treasure and dirty versus clean.
I’m a Piece of Garbage truly brought me back to my childhood roots when my folks would peruse the streets for discarded items or furniture for our apartment. In our household, what might have been considered a relatively ok item was admired greatly had it come from the street. I never quite outgrew this habit, now turning trash to treasure through sign painting and photography.
I'm a Piece of Garbage also had a more personal meaning - despite trying to always work hard and be good to all the people I encounter in this life it's easy to fall short and I find myself often unimpressed with myself on many levels. The photographs on bright saturated backgrounds helped make these messy and unattractive thoughts clean and friendly.
