Heidi Leverty: Outbox

This body of work is about recycled and discarded items that no longer perform the functions for which they were intended. What appears to be without value is in fact a source of inspiration, a bounty of objects d’art. Removed from their first use, these materials of paper, metal, plastic and fabric secrete an unexpected visual richness, the product of chance.

My art focuses on items that are part of our daily lives, art that is integrated into the culture and community. My intention is to portray the unique and extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary.

Up close, these mundane and discarded objects become poetic abstractions of strength and emotion. As I see these objects condemned to destruction, I experience the conflict between human classification of uselessness, a sense of loss in wasted function and the unexpected attraction of sublime beauty in overlooked places. Bales of shredded paper, cartons, boxes of varied hues and metal sliced like luncheon meat give way to a collage of life in which we all take part.

Unique and ephemeral works, sculptured forms with an intense beauty, all emerge from piles of rusty metal objects and roll of sheet metal. Their colour markings suggesting comparisons with the splashes of Jackson Pollock.

Although these images are abstracts in approach, they are documentary in their representation, and powerful enough to create public awareness and make one reflect on the eventual metamorphosis of these used and unwanted products. Simple objects retired from use in passage from refuse to trash to recycled material.

— Heidi Leverty

All images: pigment on archival paper (2009-2010). Courtesy Bau-Xi Photo, Toronto.