One man’s trash is another man’s talent

The “trash” stacked up to about four feet; the top of the pile looked unstable, and the wasted-filled Jenga-like creation was on the verge of collapsing.

Modern art can be expressed in many ways. Something as simple as the art exhibit titled TRASH by Sean Findley, which features a huge, pyramid-shaped pile of crinkled-up fast-food like wrappers in the middle of the Dr. Maxine Merlino Gallery, can be meaningful in the right context.

In the exhibit, his screen print art becomes faux trash. The senior printmaking major’s technique utilizes fast-food wrappers taken from the establishment to create 500 custom prints, each identical to their actual packaging.

“Printing each piece took more time and effort,” Findley said. “I think that gives the piece more of an impact versus using actual trash.”

The exhibition displays his depiction of garbage using logo designs from popular fast-food establishments:  McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Taco Bell and KFC, without the horrid odor left behind from the wrappers.

The pile of rumpled, white and red, sporadically placed wrappers stack up sloppily, yet somehow still appear to be artistically woven together in the middle of the cramped gallery.

Findley said, the pile of trash represents the edible garbage that major fast-food chains sells to consumers.

“Fast-food establishments sell products disguised as food, wrapped with elaborately printed pieces of paper,” Findley said.

He said that fast-food companies brainwash their consumers by warping the truth, and tricking their consumers into thinking the menu items are especially made for them, with the freshest ingredients.

He said he hopes viewers grasp the underlying message evoked from the piece– “That these places are absolutely disgusting,” Findley said.

“These people who are high up in the corporation are profiting off of the harm of society. It’s just disgusting,” said first-year biochemistry graduate student Noor Bala. “When I walk in here, I see that. It makes me almost angry.”

Bala said she thinks pieces of art like this are important.

Findley enjoys screen printing and creating new prints and shirts for his friends. “It’d be nice to live off of selling my work and strictly making art,” he said.

He has two jobs, working at Sprouts Market and the Huntington Beach library. This is Findley’s last semester at Cal State University Long Beach, and this his first solo exhibition.

“In our drive-through culture, most people know fast-food is bad for them,” Findley said. “Yet they either turn a blind eye or just play dumb while continuing to eat the garbage.”

The TRASH exhibit will be showcased until Thursday in the Merlino Gallery near the Fine Arts Building.