b-uncut

Rubbish Art

// January 13th, 2012 // featured // Paper Boat Creative

Collecting junk from the local dump and bringing it back home as ‘art’ might make most people hold their breath and politely ask you to return it, but upcycling is a booming trend. Dutch photographer Alexandra Brand is an enthusiastic fan, claiming that she enjoys the idea of creating harmony from chaos.

Arranging her found objects into a harmonious whole in preparation for a photograph is a meticulous process, each shot requiring considerable effort to set up – often an entire day. But Brand’s selective colour palette and meticulous positioning of objects makes her work both intriguing and easy on the eye.

17^th Century Dutch art is known for its soft colours and lighting, reflecting the character of the Dutch landscape itself, but in the 19^th Century Van Gogh upturned that tradition with his bold colours. But in Brand’s work at any rate, Holland’s flat landscape and delicate light have reasserted themselves.

Brand is a fine artist reflective of her Dutch artistic ancestors, except she uses very modern tools – and what we could controversially call a modern trend – as her chosen medium.