THE JUNK MAIL PROJECT

Barbara Hashimoto, Grand Piano with Shredded Junk Mail, Installation (2007)
photo credit: Eric Young Smith

PROJECT SUMMARY
As Artist-in-Residence at BauerLatoza Studio, a multidisciplinary architecture firm with a committed sustainable design practice, Hashimoto proposes to collect the junk mail that the firm receives for 12 months. more >

THE JUNK MAIL PROJECT | EXHIBITION | APRIL11 - MAY 24, 2008
In conjunction with Artropolis, Hashimoto is invited by The Chicago Arts District to present a Junk Mail installation/performance in their main exhibition space at 2003 South Halsted Street (April 11-May 24). She collaborates with artist Michael Kozien (video and sound) and architect Joanne Bauer (lighting). At this exhibition Hashimoto premieres her related work, "White Trash" and "The Credit Report".

BARBARA HASHIMOTO AT MONUMENT, APRIL 2008
Hashimoto has been invited to create a shredded junk mail installation in the lobby of The Ruth Page Center for the Arts during the run of The Seldoms Monument, an evening-length dance theater work addressing "the frenzied course of our individual acts of consumption along the one-way ride to the trash heap". She will also conduct a post show presentation. more>

JUNK MAIL FACTS
100 million trees are cut down to produce junk mail annually. The majority of junk mail is produced from natural forests. In 2006, Americans received 77 billion pieces of junk mail. In 2006, more than 15 million trees were cut down to produce the 1.8 billion pounds of undeliverable junk mail. (That’s above and beyond what was delivered.) 44% of the junk mail received goes unopened into the landfill. more >

INSTALLATION PERFORMANCE | CHICAGO 2007
The Junk Mail Project opened in Chicago on October 20, 2007. In conjunction with the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs, Barbara Hashimoto presented the performance/installation, Shredded Junk Mail with Grand Piano. more >

ART IN AMERICA REVIEW
The sensation of swimming in trash, or junk, seems quintessentially modern – a consequence of insatiable appetites for new products and the attendant proliferation of packaging and advertising. The genres of collage and found-object installation, also prototypically modern, are intimately connected to trash as well. more >

BARBARA HASHIMOTO GETS ALL TRASHY
Hashimoto gracefully scoops up mounds of multicolored shredded junk mail while musician Edward Torrez vigorously plays lingering piano riffs. Hashimoto transforms Torrez into the unsuspecting dupe, who plays all tuxedo clad, a sort of domestic elegance, while the stream of junk mail envelops him completely. The harder he plays, the further he is swallowed by the superfluous pieces of paper. more >

JUNK MAIL WEAVINGS
"...restrained abstractions composed of woven strips of shredded advertisements". Kirsten Swenson, Art in America, April 2008 more >