22nd Annual Canstruction Competition
Last Thursday during my lengthy 4-hour gap between classes, I went down to meet my dad for lunch at his office. He works in the World Financial Center, which is conveniently located right next to the newly opened Freedom Tower. Each time I visit him, I am awed by the beauty of this large, spiraling building, along with the heart wrenching 9/11 memorial that seems to dig into the earth infinitely.
This day in particular was a special day because at my dads building there was an exhibit that was unlike any other that I’ve seen before. Upon taking the down escalator to the plaza, I was stopped in my tracks by a series of sculptures made out of cans of food.
After walking over to them, I realized that they were all part of a competition called Canstruction. In particular this was the 22nd Annual Canstruction NYC Design/Build Competition. This competition is run to raise awareness of the role the food banks play in communities all over the country. Canned food in particular is one of the most important things for food banks.
There were about a dozen sculptures of all different sizes and themes. I admire them because it looked like whoever made them spent a lot of time and hard work to make these perfect. Also taking what most people think is just a metal container that is used to store food and turning it into a piece of art is truly fascinating. The winners of the competition are decided by the public on their Facebook page as well as by 5 jurors who have the final say. Voting ended yesterday Thursday November 14th and the winner was Hungry to the Core, my personal favorite. Other than “Hungry to the Core”, other sculptures included a seal with a beach ball on its nose, an owl, and a thinking man.
This was definitely a great surprise for me to be able to see this as it was not there for long and was not the art I am used to seeing. I hope that next year I am able to see the new contestant’s sculptures as I am curious what else could be made out of cans of soup and sardines.
These sculptors look amazing! I love this idea of turning an everyday item like cans into a work of art. I must go see next year’s sculptors in person.
Wow, this is actually really cool.
It’s truly fascinating how people come up with such great ideas to both turn what we would normally consider “garbage” into a form of art and to increase awareness of a particular issue. I personally think that it is certainly a very creative and effective technique. From these pictures, it is evident that much work and effort was put into the creation of these sculptures. Next time before I throw away a stack of “garbage” items, I will first think about what function could they serve in the art world.
Thanks for sharing!
This is an extremely interesting art exhibit, Mike! It proves that we can see art in places that we may not necessarily expect, and that it truly is all around us in New York (even in an office building). I personally like the “Thinking Man” and Seal the best. However, each sculpture just proves how much creativity people can have. It seems like everyday, we can come across someone that can picture a painting on a canvas when looking at the paint (and some inspiration). We don’t, though, come across people that can picture cans as a sculpture that is so easily recognizable. This is awesome art, I’ll definitely look more into it and be more aware of it!