BARBARA HASHIMOTO: JUNK MAIL IN WHATEVER LAND
Barbara Hashimoto: Junk Mail exhibition, sponsored by the Chicago Art District & Podmajersky, Inc., has landed on Whatever Land. Thanks to photographer Archie Florcruz, a guest at the 2nd Friday Gallery Walk (2003 S. Halsted Street, East Pilsen, Chicago,) Hashimoto’s junk mail creations landed on his popular photo sharing site Whatever Land.
Florcruz posted “Junk Mail Landscapes” and “White Trash: Available” plus guest artists Michael Kozien’s suite of video and sound junk mail explorations. He also clicked away as guests sat in front of the mounds of hand shredded junk mail while being taped making “true” Junk Mail Confessions. Here was a chance for the photojournalist to document over a year’s worth of hand-shredded junk mail by fine artist Barbara Hashimoto.
“Advertisers need to be more conscious of people’s right to quality of life,” says Hashimoto from a packed gallery opening this past Friday, “Junk mail is an intrusion into that right.”
Other special events throughout the year include Junk Mail Landscapes, Junk Mail Interiors, and Junk Mail Christmas where trees will be decorated using hand shredded Catalogues and other Holiday related Junk mail.
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.
Born in New Jersey and educated at Yale, Hashimoto’s work has been exhibited throughout Japan, The U.S. and The Middle East and is in more than 250 public and private collections including The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American Art, The Museum of Arts and Design (New York) and The National Museum of Women in the Arts.
