354/366 Litter in Art

It appears that there are quite a few artists that use litter in art. They will take it away to their studio and do something with it that turns it in to art. There have been three occasions over recent weeks where I have seen something that I have photographed, here are the other two;

This is different, because the litter itself is the “art” – in situ. Without anything else having been done to it. Now that sounds really arrogant, I’ve taken three pictures of some things and have labelled it art . I am absolutely not an artist.

OK, so the middle image is an act of vandalism, and it annoys me intensely that I liked the image that I took to report to streetscene who were quite prompt in getting the trolley removed. The straw (the bottom image) was on top of the litter bin – perhaps they didn’t put it in because the cup was full? The top picture was just a piece of litter that I just walked past.

For quite a time now, I have considered taking a picker and a litter bag with me. What I am worried about is being accused of having dropped the litter, if I am going to take a picture, it is only fair that I remove the litter. I need to think about buying a litter bag hoop and a picker. This introduces logistical problems. I can’t pick up all of the litter I see. There’s a lot. I can’t carry it all. If I take only one picture of a piece of litter, I have used a 75 litre bag for that one piece. Alternatively I could pick the object and take it to the nearest litter bin. I have my picture, and I have removed the offensive litter.

Gosh, so that made me think. I actually abandoned a version of this post because it really was going in a direction with which I was not at all happy. But I think I have got there.