Music Recycled into Art

Erika Iris Simmons is an American artist who transforms used cassette tapes into artworks. The creative process of recycling second hand objects into art is often referred to as up-cycling, an artistic style that is becoming popular with artists around the world.


Turning Cassette Tapes into Art

Using the ribbon from a cassette tape, Simmons creates distinctive portraits of musicians and singers. The ribbon can be cut, bent, glued and even ruffled to create different parts of the face. Working on a white background allows the artist to create areas of stark contrast, highlighting the features of the subject.

Above: A cassette tape fan art portrait of Bob Dylan. The artist has used a variety of techniques to create contrast between the organic facial details and the solid, geometric area of the suit.

Above: A photograph of singer and musician, Bob Marley, is immortalized in this musical art style. The creative use of the tape ribbon near the cassette is a signature style of this artist.

Above: Debbie Harry from Blondie. The use of four cassette tapes in this artwork creates a frame for the singer's face.

Musicians Immortalized in Music and Art

Simmons chooses famous musicians with highly recognizable faces. The visual impact of the art style compliments the strength of these characters, immortalizing their personalities with the very music that they created.

Above: Jimi Hendrix, legendary guitar player and singer. The artist has ruffled the cassette tape ribbon to create the musician's afro hair style.

Above: John Lennon, of the Beatles. The placement of the portrait and the cassette tape makes it seem as though Lennon is emerging from the cassette, much like a genie would emerge from a magic lamp.

Above: Michael Jackson's face is recognizable even when it is portrayed with only a few lines and shapes.

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Artistic Recycling: Amazing Furniture Made From Old Bicycles

Stylish and unique furniture made from bicycle wheel rims, handle bars, and frames.

Where do bicycles go when they die? Andy Gregg transforms these unwanted vehicles into contemporary furniture. Using the stainless steel and aluminum frames, wheel rims and handlebars from old bikes, Gregg creates chairs, tables and barstools.

Above: This lounge chair is created from old bike parts, using inner tubes to create springy upholstery.

Gregg has been creating recycled bicycle furniture since 1990, refining his designs and adding more pieces to his inventory. Each piece has a slick, clean look; a positive image that one would not expect from old bike parts.
His creations also include recycled items from other locomotives. Windows from trains and cars become glass table tops and seat belt webbing is used for upholstery.

Above: Windows from old automobiles are transformed into glass table tops for coffee tables and bar tables.

Many of these designs can weather a life outdoors as practical and attractive garden furniture. Certainly a topic for conversation, the furniture offers both aesthetic value and functionality.

Above: The Loveseat design offers a stylish and comfortable chair for two people.

Gregg offers custom-made options, so a buyer may choose the type and color of upholstery; material variations include rubber inner tubes, leather, clear or colored acrylic, cork and vinyl. Customizable furniture allows the buyer to choose the material of the armrests and the color of the seating. Recycling takes many forms and exciting artworks made from old, unwanted items is becoming more popular. Andy Gregg’s designs are certainly a unique and functional use of old bicycles.
Located in Marquette, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Superior, Bike Furniture Design Headquarters continues to create new and interesting recycled furniture. For more info and designs, visit Bike Furniture Design.


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Recycled Kitchen Utensils become Art

Sayaka Kajita Gans is a Japanese artist who recycles discarded kitchen utensils, toys and metal items by transforming them into emotive sculptures.

Sayaka Kajita Gans, Recycling Artist

Gans says that her work process reminds her of growing up in several different countries. Moving from one home to another throughout her childhood gave Gans a sense of disconnectedness, which is conveyed through her art. Each item that Gans chooses to use in her artworks are carefully selected, and must meet the requirement of being previously owned, used and discarded. Gans gives these pieces a new life by combining them to create an animal form that seems almost alive.

Above: Convergence II

Gans uses flowing lines to create a sense of life and movement in her sculptures. Each creature seems to be frozen in time, like a single frame out of an animation. Each part of the animal is made up of a series of curves and arcs that further add to the sense of movement that the sculpture conveys. Art made with reclaimed objects is gaining popularity around the world, but it is a rarity to see such skill applied to recycled art.

Above: Fogo

When sketching, an artist will often create motion lines behind the subject to convey speed and movement. Gans has incorporated this technique into her sculptures, as seen above in the sculpture of a running cheetah, Fogo. These motion lines add to the sensation of movement in Gans’s work.

Above: Emergence

In Emergence, Gans has created two horses that appear to be emerging from a wall. The incompleteness of the horse’s bodies portray Gans’s sense of disconnectedness. It creates a transitory feeling of life existing only in a moment, fading into the past within seconds, never to be reclaimed. In converse, it can also form the idea that life emerges from the past, yet is always tied to its beginnings.
 In Emergence, one can easily see the shapes of some of the found objects that Gans has used. The ears on the black horse are spades, and the ears on the white horse are large spoons.

Above: Plunge

 

This piece uses several individual sculptures to create the finished product, Plunge. The penguins depicted appear to be plunging into water, even though they are hung in air. The piece gives the viewer the fun sensation that they are standing beneath the surface of the water watching the penguins dive. Gans has given the impression of water movement behind the penguins by twisting wire into swirls. 

Below are more examples of Gans’s sculptures. You can visit her website at SayakaGans.com

Above: Wayne

Above: Deep Sea

Above: Jaws

Above: Walker

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