Recycled Treasure

by Bronwyn Cawker

It seems as if practically everyone, young or old, has heard the expression, "one person's trash is another person's treasure." Sweeping through discards at Goodwill, and finding an unusual figurine or a unique video may not be categorized as the prototypical treasure hunt for the majority. Yet from the keen perspective of a found artist, this often clichéd phrase can hold true, with a prospective goldmine of trinkets to be uncovered on the store's aging racks.

Found art is a concept developed by early 20th century artist, Marcel Duchamp, who called his found art pieces of urinals and bicycle wheels “readymades”.

Despite not being widely accepted as art in the past – often considered lazy and shocking – found art has wriggled its way into a more mainstream light even playing dominant roles in the independent movie Ghost World and the publication Found Magazine.

Found artists are connoisseurs of unseen value, sifting through the garbage of the world and blurring traditional lines by turning simple objects into workable art forms.

On the humourous end of the found art spectrum is a comedic video-collecting duo, Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett, who have created The Found Footage Festival (FFF).

The world has its fair share of annual film festivals, but this concept hardly resembles the prestigious Cannes or Toronto film festivals. Envision a potentially embarrassing home video your Grandmother captured of you singing along to the Spice Girls when you were ten years old. Now, imagine it being ridiculed of on the big screen after your granny’s home video fell into the clutches of Nick Prueher.

The FFF showcases a number of humourous and often tragically cheesy movies found in overlooked places such as warehouses, workplaces, garage sales and thrift stores. Prueher began collecting movies in 1991 after uncovering a McDonald’s training video entitled “Inside and Outside Custodial Duties.” Since then, he’s unearthed hundreds of videos.

"We have over 1000 tapes and they’re all cluttering up my apartment. I have boxes we haven’t even gone through yet," Prueher says in a phone interview shortly following the festival's three day stint in Alaska. Prueher and Pickett didn't leave the chilly state empty-handed, returning home to New York with a box of 35 orphaned videos to add to the ever-growing pile.

Prueher and Pickett got the idea to take their love for the found cinema from their living rooms onto the big screen with intentions of making some money towards their video-documentary about Larry Pierce, a man they dub as the “dirtiest country singer in America.”

They considered, “what if we screened these videos at a theatre somewhere in New York?’ says Prueher. “And we did." He really did not expect the show to strike such a large chord with the audience.

Since their first screening, the FFF has garnered big laughs from sold-out audiences across the United States, as well as stops in Amsterdam and a future stint in April at the Festival Némo in Paris, France.

There are typically three touring acts done by the festival, each comprised of 15 video clips organized into different categories. Each clip is introduced by Prueher and Pickett live and in person, to explain where and how the videos were found while adding their own personal touches. "While we play the videos we also like to make smart-ass remarks," says Prueher.

Visual appetizers of the live show can be found on their website; short snippets of what can be expected at the festival. A number of clips are introduced on stage by the boys, such as a rowdy Memorial Day party (burning couch included), a horrifying insurance video, and a foul-mouthed RV salesman.

"For us, the appeal was always voyeuristic, peaking in at these moments captured on video-tape that people may not want to remember, but we find worth remembering," says Prueher about the appeal of the festival. "There’s something cathartic about watching say, a training video, in a room full of 300 people, when it’s intended to be watched by one person in a break-room somewhere."
Although the premise of the show has artistic merit, Prueher does not see himself as an artist and is primarily a filmmaker. However, he does see the artistic value in his creative use of discarded tapes.  

"Anytime you take something from one context and change it there’s artistic value."

One theatre you will not see the FFF appearing in is one of Mars Tokyo’s Teeny Theatres (of the 13th dimension), the creations of Baltimore artist Sally Mericle. Inspired by Victorian tabletop toy theatre, this former graphic-design teacher has been challenging herself by constructing miniature theatre scenes inside 5cm x 12cm boxes. She uses found, nostalgic objects as her props.

Holes are strategically cut in the front of the theatres giving viewers a small glance inside the tiny world. Objects contained within her theatres include random litter, gifts, family heirlooms and, as Mericle says, some things so bizarre and irreplaceable that she could never part with them.

"I think there’s a certain kind of randomness in finding something and being able to incorporate it into a piece of art," Mericle says about using found objects in her theatres. "It could be out there for years and years, but once you find it, it becomes yours and it comes into your life and brings some kind of meaning."

Mericle had accumulated a vast collection of small objects, not having any idea of what she was intending to use them for. Upon working on her theatre project, she found a great use for her “treasure trove.”

"That’s different than saying 'Oh gee, I wish I had XYZ,’ and you go to the store and buy that XYZ,” she says of her preference for using found objects. “When you find something randomly, there’s an element of destiny in there."

She created her first theatre early in the summer of 2001 inside a small gift box using magnifying glasses, and archival-quality glue and tweezers. Mericle has since expanded her roster to over 200 themed theatres.

These theatres showcase a variety of her thoughts, giving a glimpse into her anti-war, leftist-political beliefs, and personal experiences

"The content for them seems to come out of a running inner dialogue that I have going in my head," Mericle says of her inspirations. She also cites conversations with friends as a major source.
"I had been at a friend’s house and talked about how the cards you’re dealt early on in life can determine what happens to you and I thought 'that’s so true.' When I was a kid, I used to build houses of cards, and I still have the deck of cards I used when I was a kid, so I scanned, (shrunk), made a tower of mini cards.”

In this world of mass consumption – and mass littering – strangely, found art might almost be considered environmentally friendly. Just think about it- next time you throw something away at the curb or into the blue bins of Goodwill, you may be doing someone else a favor. After all, your discards may be just what someone has been looking for.