Artist of the Week: Mierle Laderman Ukeles

THE MOTHER OF ALL TRASH ARTISTS

Ceremonial Arch Honoring Service Workers…Courtesy Ronald Feldman Gallery

From the time he was just a little Trash Boy, the Trashmanian Devil has followed the career of artist and activist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. She’s best known as the first, and so far only, artist in residence for the New York City Sanitation Department. Her long connection with one of the nation’s largest group of garbage men began with her most famous performance piece, Touch Sanitation, in which she shook the hand(s) of 8,500 New York City garbage workers–thanking them for a job well done.

It was the 60’s  and 70’s and flower-power and the feeling the world could be changed… That’s when she wrote her Maintenance Manfesto. Here’s a quote: ” The sourball of every revolution , after the revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning….” Truer words, as the OWS movement might say, were never written.

The TrashMan was a TrashTeen in 1983 when Ukeles created an installation at the Islip Art Museum from debris reclaimed from the village dump.  Shortly after the opening reception, Islip custodians proudly told the Museum director they had discovered trash in the galleries and had cleaned it all up…. Life is long, and art is short…so says the Trashman.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles is still blurring the boundaries between art and life, between maintenance and creation, between sung heroes and unsung heroes.  We made the mess. She’s all about saluting those who clean up after us.