Tampa Museum Lines Up 4 Summer Shows - Tampa Tribune - by Esther Hammer - July 19, 2007
Andrew Junge's American Detritus - NY Arts - by Megan Voeller - July/August 2007
Artists on display at Tampa Museum of Art - Bradenton Herald - by Joan Altabe - June 28, 2007
Humming Along: A Styrofoam H1 makes a pit stop in Sarasota, while images reflect from New York - Creative Loafing - by Megan Voeller - 4/5/07
Andrew Junge is shown at Greene Contemporary in association with
Lincart, San Francisco, California.
Andrew Junge, a versatile artist who works in many media will be showing one work - his full scale Styrofoam Hummer (American Detritus) at the NEW Greene Contemporary Warehouse in March. The Warehouse is located at 1320 Central Avenue. There will be a preview evening on Friday March 16th from 5 to 8 PM. The Hummer will remain parked in the warehouse from Saturday March 17 through Saturday April 14th, 2007 and will be available to see by appointment and during special events that will be announced by email.
Junge created this unique full scale replica of a Hummer from Styrofoam as part of a grant funded project where he made art from material he recycled from a garbage dumpsite in San Francisco. The 700 lb vehicle that is transported in four sections was most recently seen at the SCOPE Miami Fair in December 2006.
Junge says he wishes " to examine and contextualize found objects and materials, to invest them with new life, and to sanctify - or at least acknowledge their presence in the world; or perhaps, more accurately, to acknowledge my presence as these materials' temporary curator and archivist. My aim is to turn the lowest form of human productivity, trash, into the highest, art - a kind of modern alchemy."
Junge currently lives in San Francisco where he went to graduate school and received his MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts studying painting and drawing.
He completed his undergraduate work in painting and sculpture at Boston University School of Fine Arts.
Junge works include paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs and digital images. The Hummer is not the first vehicle that he has transformed. His 1980 Chevy Van was his thesis project. He re-wrote the owner's manual and transformed the van into a work of art including creating a self portrait on the ceiling with carpet and lights. Junge says that "like all of my artistic endeavors, it is a form of self-portraiture."
The Hummer is handcrafted of bricks of Styrofoam made from thousands of individual pieces of shaped polystyrene, glued together and then either shaved and sanded down, cut with a hot-wire tool, or skinned with a sheet of polystyrene veneer. The assembled pieces sit on a frame made of plywood and 2 x 4 lumber, also scavenged from the dump. Held together with five gallons of StyroWeld glue, a case of Liquid Nails, a case of PL polyester adhesive, and various screws, bolts, metal rods and pipes, the Hummer weighs between 400 and 700 pounds. It is 17 feet long, 6 feet high, and with mirrors, over 8ft wide. Flexible sheets and tubes of polyethylene, a cousin of polystyrene, were also used to create some aspects of the Hummer such as the soft top and brush guard. To construct the vehicle to the correct proportions a 1/25 plastic model was used and then scaled to life size. Measurements were also taken from a real Hummer H1.
Styrofoam Hummer (American Detritus) Information / Artist Statement
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The Hummer H1 originally was developed in the 1980's by the AM General Corporation for military purposes. Named the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle or HMMWV, it was called a Humvee by the soldiers, which evolved into the nickname Hummer, as a joke reference to an oral sex act. Today, generally, H1s used by the military are referred to a Humvees while the civilian varieties are called Hummers.
The military Humvee can be configured as a wagon or sedan, hardtop or convertible and can be outfitted with a machine gun, cannon or missile launcher. With uses as diverse as armament and cargo carrying, to troop transportation and ambulance, the Humvee's durability and adaptability in the battlefield was proven during the first Gulf War in 1991. Its 4x4 capability, low center of gravity and speed make the Humvee highly mobile in a variety of terrains. However, this mobility is in direct proportion to its vulnerability to enemy fire. Many of the Humvees currently in military service are lightly armored or unarmored in order to keep them light and fast. This vulnerability is reflected in the high number of casualties sustained in the current Iraq war from improvised explosive devices and roadside bombs.
In 1992 the Hummer began to be manufactured for, and marketed to, the general civilian population. This is in no small part due to the interest taken in the vehicle by actor Arnold Swarzenegger, at whose request the very first civilian Hummer was created. When first introduced, Hummers were available only from the factory or through the Nieman-Marcus Christmas catalog, and only in the color tan. Since being introduced in 1992 almost 12,000 civilian H1s have been produced.
Considered by many to be the ultimate civilian off-road vehicle, the Hummer H1 capabilities come at a cost - a hefty price tag of $60,000 - $120,000 and fuel usage of less than 10 miles to gallon.
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Styrofoam, the Dow chemical company trade name for expanded polystyrene, is made up of 5% polystyrene solids and 95% air. Polystyrene is a commercially manufactured polymer made from monomer styrene, a colorless liquid hydrocarbon derived from crude oil and natural gas. Originally CFCs or chlorofluorocarbons were used as blowing agents to expand the foam but more environmentally safe agents are now used. Expanded polystyrene is typically a white material used for packing and shipping electronics and other breakables, as well as for sound dampening, padding, and floatation in water. It is also used for food packaging and consumption because of its light weight, low cost, and insulating properties. Examples include Styrofoam drinking cups, restaurant take-out containers, and ice chests.
In its solid form, polystyrene is relatively inert and resists breakdown by water, light, freezing, rotting or other organic processes. It is flammable, and the burning of polystyrene creates water, carbon dioxide, and toxic soot. While it is technically possible to recycle polystyrene, it is not currently cost effective to do so in San Francisco.
Process
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This life-size model of a civilian Hummer H1 was constructed from Styrofoam scavenged from the trash, during a three-month residency as the Artist In Residence at Norcal Waste Systems Incorporated. This program gives artists the opportunity to create art from materials found in the San Francisco dump. Norcal provides a studio on the dump premises, tools, a small stipend, and most importantly access to SF's waste stream. This experience culminates in a two-day show of the artist's work at the end of the residency. Styrofoam Hummer was the centerpiece of this show, entitled American Detritus.
The Styrofoam Hummer was handcrafted brick by Styrofoam brick from thousands of individual pieces of shaped polystyrene, bonded together and then either shaved and sanded down, cut with a hot-wire tool, or skinned with a sheet of polystyrene veneer. The assembled pieces sit on a frame made of plywood and 2x4 lumber, also scavenged from the dump. Held together with five gallons of StyroWeld glue, a case of Liquid Nails, a case of PL polyester adhesive, and various screws, bolts, metal rods and pipes. This model weighs between 300 and 500 pounds and it probably floats. It is 17 feet long, 6.5 feet high, and with mirrors, over 8 feet wide. Flexible sheets and tubes of polyethylene, a cousin of polystyrene, were also used to create some parts for the Styrofoam Hummer, such as the soft-top and brush guard. To construct the vehicle to the correct proportions a 1/25 plastic model was used and then scaled to life size. Measurements were also taken from a real Hummer H1, which, incidentally, is owned by a local SF man who runs his H1 on bio-diesel fuel.