Waste Knot
Our momentum in life constantly sways between two extremes: order and chaos. Making a form in a meaningful way and constructing it within the proportional constraints of the golden ratio is nothing new in the realm of design. It is often an attempt to gesture toward the order side of the pendulum. However, in this mural, the call to order lies in the materiality itself by calling on the viewer to follow the composition of discarded materials, traveling back and forth between order and chaos.
Currently, the way in which we consume and dispose of materials is chaotic and unsustainable.
Waste Knot reinvents post-consumer material into a kinetic form in order to show how scrap and seemingly useless items can grow into something beautiful. The mural utilizes steel from the renovation of West 6th Brewery, used bike frames from the Broke Spoke Community Bike Shop, as well as post-consumer paint cans from Habitat for Humanity.
The last drip of paint does not signify the end of the “Waste Knot” creation. Rust staining and the flaking of paint – can they be anticipated? Certainly, they are inevitable, but can they be projected or imagined as a likely future occurrence … still further, can they be incorporated into a design project? The metamorphosis of the material’s ever-changing finish within the mural advocates that its life does not end just because we are finished with what it was originally purposed for. The “Waste Knot” encourages all to use materials wisely as well as sustainably.
A sincere thank you to West 6th Brewery for support and encouragement, Charles O’Bryan, Kari Kinder, Matt Storrs, Ross Zimmerman, and the many other UK College of Design students who were essential in the creation and installation of the “Waste Knot.”