Have you ever felt like you lived in a dump and wished all the trash was miraculously swept away? Beijing-based artist Wang Zhiyuan helps us visualize what a whirlwind of trash, ascending into the air would look like in his piece entitled Thrown to the Wind. While it seems like a novel idea for trash to disappear into the skies, the reality is that we are all living with it on Earth – some more than others.
Zhiyuan’s larger-than-life tornado of plastic waste, which stands 36-feet high, represents the heaps of trash that overwhelm his hometown and its surrounding environment. The gigantic trash tower really puts the overbearing toll of the waste problem into perspective. It seems cool and colorful at first, but Zhiyuan has an underlying message to evoke a discussion by garnering attention to the problem. The artist says, “I want my art to be about something bigger than me. If it wasn’t involved in society I would feel guilty.”
