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‘Bouquet of love’ transformation of trash to treasure
Eye catching: ‘Bouquet of Love’ adds a captivating visual element to the already iconic Potato Head wall
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Eye catching: ‘Bouquet of Love’ adds a captivating visual element to the already iconic Potato Head wall.
An artist’s token of love shines a light on the island’s plastic trash problem.
Thousands of electronic music lovers who attended the two-day Sunny Side Up Tropical Festival last week were treated to a breathtaking vista as they walked pass the box office.
Before them was a gigantic and colorful art installation covering a huge part of the outer wall of the Potato Head Beach Club, a glitzy Seminyak establishment and the principal venue of the festival.
At first glance, the art work looked like an extraterrestrial octopus with a mechanized torso and terrifying tentacles reaching out across rows upon rows of vintage wooden windows that for years have lent Potato Head its iconic look.
A closer observation, however, revealed that the terrifying monster was not a monster at all. Rather, it was a clever and colorful arrangement of used objects, from discarded television sets to used tires and broken washing machines.
The Hydra-like tentacles were crafted with used paint buckets and their heads reminded the spectators more of Mickey Mouse than of menacing serpents.
The juxtaposition of brightly colored circles and squares gave the structure the overall impression of a tropical garden with blooming flowers and swaying coconut trees.
Titled Bouquet of Love, the installation was conceptualized and created by Yogyakarta-based visual artist Eko Nugroho.
An internationally-acknowledged artist who has participated in exhibitions and residency programs across the globe, Eko has earned the respect of his peers and art critics through his acute ability to fuse the eye-catching aesthetics of street art with the complex symbolism of fine art.
He received wider public recognition last July when Aqua, the country’s giant bottled water manufacturer, commissioned him to create visual designs for its premium line.
Eko traces the monster-like appearance of Bouquet of Love back to his childhood infatuation with monsters.
“When I was a kid, monsters always amazed me, inspired me. I loved two heroes and none of them were human in appearance,” he said, referring to Voltes V and Goggle V, both Japanese television shows featuring giant robots as their protagonists.
The series, he says, taught him about the complexity of human behavior, particularly in regards to the very fragile moral fabric that separates vice from virtue and victim from perpetrator.
“I have always been interested in social and demographic issues because they will always involve humans and they will always reflect the cyclical nature of fortune and misfortune, good and evil.”
“And there is always a man behind that cycle,” he stressed while pointing at a picture of two human eyes peeking out from the center part of Bouquet of Love.
The installation itself serves as a warning on the trash and pollution problems gradually engulfing the country and a reminder that the solution will very much depend on collective will instead of individual action and awareness.
“Only when shapes and colors are working together in unison can beauty be attained.”
The message of Bouquet of Love, a stunning visual testimony to the concept of “upcycling,” is particularly resonant in Bali, an island that produces more than 200 tons of solid waste, mostly plastic, on a daily basis. The island is plagued by illegal dumping sites and low public awareness.
In recent years, the problem has spurred the birth of several grassroots initiatives, including Malu Dong and the Wijsen Sisters’ Bye Plastic Bags, as well as aesthetic movements such as Plasticology by painter and musician Made Bayak.
However, a true collective awareness has yet to emerge.
It took Eko three months and numerous visits to dumpsters and recycling facilities across Yogyakarta to find the objects for Bouquet of Love. Now, it will be on display for a year at Potato Head, a constant reminder for the patrons of the club of Bali’s environmental problems.
— Photos courtesy of Potato Head
