Annerie calls out, “Come and have a look at this!”
At first it is hard to figure out what the heck is going on. A gentleman by the name of Jack appears to be presenting Annerie with some type of psychedelic bouquet, a treasure-and-trash flower that is bursting out every-which-way.
A customer at the Addi Road Food Pantry recognises it immediately. “Oh look, it’s a reindeer.”
You got it!
Jack is pleased. He swings by Addi Road now and again with the little sculptures he has put together out of recycled and rescued materials. Mostly they are a combination of things he finds on the street. Sometimes he weaves in items he purchases from second hand and bric-a-brac stores to complete an idea.
You have to look twice today to recognise the old bicycle seat that first sparked Jack on to the way to making a reindeer. He then cut out plywood from wooden jigsaw puzzles to make the antlers. Jack went a little wild from there, pasting on old Australian stamps and attaching beads, wires, a gift sock, decorations and found jewellery among other things.
To cap it all off, Jack was able to find a some Xmas lights, which is what makes this wreckage-wrought Rudolph rock the wall beside your holiday season tree this year.
“There’s just so much waste,” Jack says, shaking his head. So he tries to have some fun and create things he can give to people. Annerie tells him, “It’s just beautiful.” Jack says, “it’s just a morning’s work. A full morning, mind you.”
Jack will have an exhibition of his junk art soon at the Law Courts Building in the city in 2022. He goes by the trade name of ‘Arty Farty’, and describes this ethos as “art from trash”.
Got a website, Jack? “No, I really have to get that together. But I’m working on it!” In the meanwhile, Jack is out there on the streets, fossicking and finding and fabricating. Coming up with sometimes bigger works, sometimes smaller. But mostly just trying to make people’s day when he can, offering up his sculpted, thrown-away moments to the passing world.