Adam Basanta

Grand Arch (Solid Waste) reflects on oblique connections between recycling processes, monumental architecture, and undiscovered ruins, in light of the intrinsic and necessary “strangeness with which we encounter the fact that we are responsible for a mass extinction event” (Timothy Morton, All Art is Ecological). 

An arch-bridge is a structure in which tension loads are distributed downward, outward, and inward as compression forces. Each piece exerts force on its neighbours while also resisting them, creating an architectural balance that does not require mortar, glue, or anchoring connections between pieces. As a structural design, it remains unparalleled in its ability to hold architectural loads, with many arch bridges still in use two thousand years after they were originally built. Grand Arch (Solid Waste) re-creates this design entirely through the use of compacted post-consumer waste. Each “building block” consists of a single post-consumer recycled material, compressed into a mould using a compacting system developed by the artist and inspired by commercial recycling processes. The use of alternating materials allows each block to contrast with its neighbours, challenging the visual continuity of the structure, while allowing reflection on our reliance and over-production of consumer goods. The sculpture is created by displacing the energy cost and invisible labour which form the backbone of recycling processes as central techniques in my studio practice. Simultaneously, it allows a unique opportunity for a community to contemplate elements of life which are local and familiar, but normally hidden, shameful, tucked away at the margins—now exposed in a grand fashion.