NARRATOR:  

A moment now to talk about…trash.  

SFX: Echoey crash from the ambi recorded at the dump 

NARRATOR:  

Artist John Chamberlain scoured junkyards to find smashed car parts, scrap metal, and other materials to make abstract sculptures like this.  

SFX: Sound of trucks beeping, and the front loader at the dump crushing things. 

NARRATOR:  

We thought we’d talk to a couple of local artists who’ve also worked with trash.  

SFX: Ambi of Jenny rooting through objects, talking about what she sees.  

ODELL:  

I mean I’m really coming at it, like, if I was unfamiliar with the planet– 

(she continues inside the dump under the next line of narration)  

NARRATOR:  

That’s artist Jenny Odell. We met up with her at the San Francisco Recology Center. Affectionately known as “the Dump.”  

SFX: Dump conversation crossfades to: 

ODELL:  

This piece by John Chamberlain probably reminds me more of being in the dump than anything possibly could… because it has these juxtapositions of things like a car fender and a washing machine, that normally aren’t very close together in your life but are both made of metal. So he’s done something to it that’s tricked you into looking at something — 

SFX: Nemo Gould rooting through his bins, telling us what he’s finding  

NARRATOR:  

Sculptor Nemo Gould has been scavenging in junkyards for years — 

GOULD:  

Standing in the presence of this piece. I see a lot of violence. I know those materials, and I know the forces that have to be in play to get them into that shape. These things didn’t just settle into that final form, a lot of energy was spent. 

ODELL:  

When I look at this, I just see, like, something that refuses to go away. 

GOULD:  

For my eye what’s pleasing is try to puzzle out, how much of the artist’s hand am I seeing? You know? Did he do this? Is he just a bloody knuckle madman? Or was this that selection process where he had to discard thousands of alternatives before finding this perfect union of things.