Brooklyn Man Turns His Life Into An Exhibition in a Dumpster

This story is the ultimate example of why hoarding is not necessarily a bad thing. Brooklyn-based artist Mac Premo was recently forced to downsize his apartment, and consequently had to throw out many of his belongings. Not wanting to just get rid of everything the normal way by making a trip to a particularly large dumpster, Premo decided to use the aforementioned dumpster as a canvas and turn it into a travelling exhibition. This he named The Dumpster Project, which has become the newest addition to Brooklyn's Dekalb Market, an esoteric collection of artists, chefs and farmers who've set up shop in a collection of salvaged shipping containers.

The interior of a 30-cubic yard dumpster has been converted into a shrine to the detritus of his past, and is now open for public perusal. Items on display include a primary school math test with such killer questions as '11+1 = ?' (it's 12, guys), the shoes his eldest daughter first walked in, three waving Mao watches, one lonely floppy disk, somebody else's wisdom teeth, a flyer for a Broadway strip club, and an emotionally significant empty bag of chips - from the night he first professed his love for his wife.

In the ultimate act of not being able to let go, he is also photographing the 500 objects included in the dumpster collection and composing a short history of each on The Dumpster Project site. If you have a smart phone you can then access the assorted eulogies while you're walking around the space to get a bit of nostalgic context. Alternatively, if you, like me, are not in New York, you can check out Premo's genuinely fascinating blog of the project.

[Via PSFK]