dear club,

The vernal pools are drying and summer is an almost visible wave of heat on the horizon. We come to you today with words and events, featuring a gathering to make Aeolian Harps aka Vulgar Domestic Waste Organs on Sunday may 31st at 12 noon in Marsha P Johnson park. If you can’t attend on account of time and/or space, we invite you to make and install your own wherever and whenever you can using the resources that follow. If this action is a success, we will likely make and install more! I will now hand it over to bianca:

vulgar domestic waste organs

~ the sound of the wind through slits in fossil fuel plastic bottles ~ it’s almost time to set up the plastorgans (wind instruments made out of plastic bottles) - i can’t remember when exactly. If you know, please tell me. i've gathered a few links and guides to get us started. we usually have good luck with wind in gp, but open to doing this anywhere, even indoors where there is zero wind

this beautiful website explains how to and refers to plastic bottles as vulgar domestic waste

here’s another guide, seems easier. (video) i have issues with calling the plastic organ a “wind hooter” or “hooters” but you may be less sensitive to this language

-> another guide for building wind organs

we can hold an outdoor trash seance or something during the day. the earth will speak to us through the trash plastic bottles. the bottle caps can be screwed onto wood, so we don’t have to worry about finding broomsticks or harvesting bamboo. strap the wood base down to whatever so it doesn't tip over, using available detritus, velcro, zip ties, an old bra, long haired dog’s long hair, wristband from the club, etc. they’ll be portable and easy to adjust. I have some 2’ 2x4’s that we can use as bases, screws, bras, tools, and i’ll grab some bottles from work. would be great to have a variety of bottle sizes to make it more experimental

other videos for inspiration:

big beautiful bottle

faces on the vulgar domestic waste

and finally, a cobra drinking water out of a sprite bottle (for fun)

i'm excited to try this out and record the audio for the album. we can sell it to help raise money for the diner, not sure if i'm being serious

sincerely, bh

we will meet here at noon on sunday. RSVP (or just show up) and feel free to send any questions. You can bring your own bottles/tools if you like, or simply join in on our experimental first install :)

manifesto manifestation

I (sy) have felt some increasing urgency about a manifesto beyond our initial dip into a common statement of purpose for gathering (see trashclub.nyc). I was finding it difficult to push myself through the news and work and life into writing and acting when the art/work didn’t feel “important” enough, or the motives too difficult to describe. Words, though very limited in their power for real change (naomi klein, doppelganger) can be really helpful for focusing personal action and mission amidst chaos, and to bring likeminded people together. Back in the winter we held a meeting to discuss the definition of “trash club”. Everyone had really nice and smart things to say about what TC is, like: “it's communal thinking about what’s not looked at directly. it’s meaningful as an outlet…an opportunity to go deep with others. it’s a block of time. it's rerouting individual blame back to corporate. it's fighting the feeling of being out of control.”

The urge to manifest(o) was amplified again by our recent impromptu gathering at a screening of Maintenance Artist at IFC, the documentary about Mierle Laderman Ukeles, most famously the life-long artist in residence of the NYC Department of Sanitation (helping to resuscitate the reputation, and arguably budget, of the department in the late 70s), among many other projects that illuminate invisible labor. I Make Maintenance Art One Hour Every Day is my favorite collaborative piece of hers. She was invited to participate in an art show in a big building on Water street in 1976, and noticed how many people worked there behind the scenes, maintaining the building.
She got to know people talking to them on their shifts, and slowly convinced all of them to make an artwork with her- taking polaroids of their work and asking them to describe that moment's action as "Maintenance Art" or "Maintenance Work", a difference in spirit I think all of us can relate to in our practiced daily labors of maintaining our own lives or the lives of others. Her manifesto of maintenance art is an inspiration, too. I’ve been aware of her for a long time, but never done a true deep dive; the film is a great portrait of her work and impact. Now the kill you idols moment - I was disappointed in that gutdropping way to find that she has a home in israel while being such a lifelong active voice for labor rights and “freedom” of all people. Living part time in a genocidal apartheid state and making a lifetime of artwork that raises up the oppressed worker.. what... it's hard for me to square. I guess it’s also hard for me to square every day that I live in the United States financially supporting our horrifically violent practices at home and globally... So here we are. Another opportunity to learn away from shameful hypocrisy…

back to manifesting

I'll leave you with my notes from recent TC encounters towards a manifesto of a kind:

Leaving trash on the street- “I like looking at trash”

“We’re lucky because trash is everything”

"The goal is not forgetting, sweeping it up, putting it away, it’s about remembering"

proactive absurdity

“we’re trying to save ourselves by caring about trash”

honoring material waste, the rights of trash

honor and dignity for waste & waste maintenance

throwing sand in the gears of people making inhumane material

we reject the idea of objects without spirit

in light of these ideas, gathering on sunday to make the souls of discarded objects audible seems perfectly apt. Hope to see you there, and talk again soon,

xoxo,

trash club

this week's newsletter compiled by slammer