ArtCycled: Making B2 beautiful by reusing

Hunter’s library has seven floors and two basement floors, all of which are packed with students doing homework, cramming for exams, hanging out and taking naps in between the shelves.

The more studious usually settle in the “Silent” floors, while the most studious go to B2, the lowest and arguably most serious. The walls and shelves are an unassuming gray and white. There’s good lighting. It’s as quiet as a vacuum. It’s serious.

Walk into B2 this semester, however, and you’ll see color on the shelves and the walls. Colorful bees are pasted on one wall. Turn a corner, and you’ll see a splatter of red, white, and blue. A sculpture-mural of the ocean, full of jellyfish and little sea creatures, stands in front of a stack of movable shelves. It’s a quaint splash of happiness in a floor devoted to quietly cramming, researching, and tearing your hair out over your grades.

It’s also all made of non-recyclable materials.

On October 21, the Hunter Sustainability Project launched “ArtCycled” – a semester-long art installation in B2 of Hunter East’s library. Headed by 20-year-old Geography and Studio Art double major Julia Jong, the club’s purpose is to promote environmental awareness through recycling, teaching the importance of renewable energy, and encouraging people to try and do better for the environment. Even small positive actions can build up and have a big impact, making the world a cleaner and healthier place.

The Hunter Sustainability Project holds “Hunter Goes Green” events every spring semester, as well as clothing drives that give away used clothing customized by the Club by silkscreening and other techniques for free. Not everything they do, however, is artsy. In 2011, the club was successful in installing solar panels to fuel a science lab in Hunter North. The lab is still running on solar energy to this day, decreasing Hunter’s heavy use of fossil fuel powered electricity and aiding research.

The projects of “ArtCycled” are all made of non-recyclable goods, as the name of the installation implies. Look closer at the bees and you’ll see they are made out of styrofoam plates. The red, white and blue piece recycles old film. A splatter of red, blue, green and black is made on styrofoam plates cut into tiles. The sea mural is made out of bubble wrap, paper plates, plastic bags, and screens.

The choice of materials for the sea mural, however, holds a double meaning. Not only does it show that the club can use non-recyclables to craft a bright art installation, but the particular materials were chosen because they are currently polluting the world’s oceans and rivers. There is a stretch in the Pacific Ocean called the Great Pacific garbage patch — a gyre of recyclable trash and debris that stretches 20 degrees latitude and 7 degrees longitude. Apart from obviously polluting pristine sea water, gyres like these severely damage and decrease the wildlife and plant life of the oceans.

Julia Jong and Silvia Cohn, next to the sea mural

Project Leader Silvia Cohn, 20 and majoring in Environmental Studies and in pursuit of a Certificate in Public Policy, sums up the initiative’s message: “This project is supposed to serve a dual purpose. Yes, we’re reusing materials that would otherwise be thrown away, but it’s a small impact. At least we’re doing that – but really, the meaning behind it is a lot more important. It’s to show that these materials would otherwise go to waste.

“We’re using what would otherwise be wasted and making it aesthetically pleasing, and sending a message along with that.”

The Hunter Sustainability Project hopes to continue “ArtCycled” by making new installations every year and, hopefully, spreading out to other floors and rooms in Hunter. Julia Jong says, “It depends on what’s available to us, but we want to branch out even to other offices that need beautification.” Regarding their current location in B2, Silvia comments, “B2 is very white and bland, and that’s why they wanted us to beautify it.”

The Project hopes to spread awareness of the project through social media with the hashtags #artcycled, #hspfishface, and #refusetowaste, so if you head down to B2, snap some photos and hashtag it with these. (The last one, if you notice, is a quirky little pun.)

ArtCycled runs through the end of the semester in Basement 2 of the Hunter West Library.