Recycled Materials Create Works of Art
Recycled materials are used to create the sculptures in “Oil and Water,” a project featured in The Hidden City Festival.
Creators The Dufala Brothers showcase found materials from Revolution Recovery, a commercial recycling center in Philadelphia. The exhibit is stationed at Globe Dye Works, an industrial building in Northeast Philadelphia, and speaks to the transition of the building from an industrial factory to a historic showpiece.
The larger than life-size works of art comprise everything from electrical wire cables to five-gallon bucket lids to steel ductwork. The majority of the materials were sourced from Revolution Recovery, who donates the items to the Brothers and other artist groups.
Billy and Steve Dufala are a collaborative artist duo who are inspired by materials they find themselves in the waste stream at Revolution Recovery among other places. The duo hopes their exhibit will ask visitors to think of their waste, even such as out of use buildings, in a new way.
Globe Dye Works is the perfect location for their installation due to its grandiose but inactive state. Like much of the materials within the exhibit, Globe Dye Works has been cast off as a dilapidated building, but as The Dufala Brothers hope to point out, has loads of potential.
The Hidden City Festival connects people with once well-known or popular buildings that have since fallen into obscurity. Each site will showcase artwork by a variety of artists in the city. The festival is open to the public until June 30th.
Revolution Recovery aims to “keep materials out of landfills.” The company is growing to become Philadelphia’s top recycling resource, and has recently opened a second location in New Castle, DE.
