Workshop | Laying Waste: Trash Collage for More-than-Human Devotion

American artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) found meaning and purpose in discarded materials, utilizing shipping boxes, agricultural feed bags, and other detritus to investigate networks of industrialization and waste. This workshop invites participants to play with Rauschenberg’s method of reclaiming garbage as objects of devotion.

Led by Emma Bautista (visual artist and researcher), Gal Nissim (interdisciplinary artist and adjunct professor), and Becca Franks (animal welfare scientist and assistant professor) from NYU’s Department of Environmental Studies, the workshop will deploy humor and celebration to “lay waste” to harmful paradigms of consumption. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the sources and supply chains from which their materials derive, as well as trace their webs of entanglement with the natural world as an attentional practice to cultivate respect, awe, and hope.

Bring your own trash to repurpose (such as used packaging), or use materials provided onsite!

Come early to see Handle with Care: Robert Rauschenberg’s Ecological Conscience— the exhibition will be on view from 11 am to 6 pm on October 7.

Light refreshments will be served.

Visitor Access & Registration

RSVP is required—please register to attend this event. For attendance without an active NYU ID card, RSVP by Monday, Oct. 6 to guarantee building access.

NYU’s Grey Art Museum provides reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. Requests for accommodations should be submitted at least two weeks in advance. Please email greyartmuseum@nyu.edu or call (212) 998-6780 for assistance.