On view at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, until May 7 was, Nothing Goes to Waste, an exhibit complete with works of reused materials. Existing vinyl was collaged for the title at the opening of the gallery, setting precedent for the pieces in the exhibit. Commenting less on the need for sustainability, reused materials are the mere impetus for the show’s focus on the curiosity of past lives of various mediums used in artworks. 

Some pieces are playful, like Susie Ganch’s 2019 Have a Nice Day from the Please Recycle this Bag series. Created with countless plastic shopping bags, Ganch tufted rug-like pieces adorn the gallery walls at both entrances to the showroom.

Olaniyi R. Akindiya’s Til Death Do Us Part #2, 2020, overcomes the space but was made with what could be condensed to a small stack of media slides. The sculptural patchwork of time depicts a couple on their wedding day: mannequins stand beneath an umbrella that is a complete collage of image slides from presumedly the history of the individuals and between the couple. The chainmail photo slide costumes show the movement of memories and the physical movement of the outfits on the models. The corset, crown, dress, and flowing tuxedo-tailedjacket of combined images faintly project upon the walls into distorted memories.

Displacement and Proximity, Matt Manalo’s 2021 work, is composed of zip ties, rubber bands, wool, raw cotton, laser jet prints on transparencies, and found woven trays. Immediately upon seeing the piece, the viewer can sense an oceanic feeling. It resembles water relentlessly lapping the shore with seaweed, debris, and memories of time. Strings of rubber bands, wool, and cotton sway gently in the gallery space, emulating a sea breeze, bringing life to the piece. On transparent circles are layers of memories, beaten and textured by the harshness of the ocean and time. The images of smiling people in hula skirts absorb the viewers into memories they never experienced. The piece is a time capsule, weathered and displaced.

Near Manalo’s work is Bing, A Connecticut Yankee Has Red Rash by Bennie Flores Ansell, which looks much like washed-up kelp hanging from the ceiling. The piece overcomes the gallery and is a grand, tangled mess of memories made from crocheted strips of film negatives. The reddish-brown film casts light onto the wall, crossing the sculpture into a changeable dimension.

With transparency film, concave mirrors, and light to cement ephemeral moments, Bennie Flores Ansell created Find the Sky 2022. With cut images of skyscapes pinned to the wall, you can see images more clearly through circular mirrors laying on the flat surface. Ansell captured fleeting moments of sky light in a playful and complaintive way.

Plastic Panel Stag, Calder Kamin, with plastic bags, steel, foam, wood, and a pair of glass eyes, produced a stag head to hang on the wall. Twisted brown bags fashion into twine for the shag rug-like texture of fur. The artist does not hesitate to force the viewer to think of waste, dressing the stag’s antlers with ornamental plastic shopping bags. The animal is majestic and exists quietly within its habitat, disrupted by non-ecofriendly items.

Jeff Forster’s works, including Objects of Lithification and Glaze Scape Conglomerate, resemble fossils and artfully crafted petrified wood. The artist’s experimentation goes right using recycled and reclaimed clay and glazes. Forster’s chaotic ceramics mimic geologic processes and bespeak its beauty.

Postal Quilt, Leigh Suggs, 2020, is a quilt of thousands of security envelopes from people all over the country. The precisely woven and stitched blanket combines various patterns and tessellations, connecting the individual lives across the country. During a solitary period, mail through the post kept people involved in society.

For the artists, doing work with post-consumed materials is more a birthplace of their creativity. The tangibility of memory is questioned by many of the works in the gallery, exploring the use of light, shadows, and reflections as mediums. The artists are able to capture ephemeral moments for the viewers in the physical world. Many of the pieces in the exhibit are studies of previously used materials, working to discern their viability to exist as something new.