NYC Garbage, Trashy Art In A Cube From New York City

Limited Edition Shea Stadium Garbage Cube
Limited Edition cube from the last Opening Day at Shea.

Yankees Parade Garbage • 4
Limited Edition from the Yankees Parade in the Canyon of Heroes celebrating their 27th World Championship. 11-6-09

View NYC Garbage Cube Locations in a larger map

What began as a bet about the importance of package design to sell a product in 2001, New York City-based artist, entreprenuer and “recovering advertising art director” Justin Gignac took that bet to a whole ‘nother level. While a student working at a New York City advertising agency, he wanted to prove to his co-worker that most anything would sell if it was packaged well. Looking out at Times Square, he saw piles of trash and had an idea. That idea became NYC Garbage: part art project, part social experiment, and this project soon became a thriving side business.

Self-described as ‘super squeamish’, Gignac hand-picks “100% authentic” garbage from “the fertile streets of NYC” and packages them in Lucite cubes. These highly collectible pieces are signed, numbered and dated and have ended up in collector’s hands all over the world. He keeps track of where they go and their corresponding details with a Google map. Since he began, over 1300 cubes stuffed with trash have been sold to fans in over 30 countries.

Gignac is no stranger to innovative ideas and was behind OfficeMax’s viral campaign, Elf Yourself before branching out on his own in 2007 with several entrepreneurial ventures with wife, Christine. In April 2011, he spoke at a PSFK Conference NYC 2011 about NYC Garbage, playing with people’s perception of value, his other fiendishly brilliant projects and the creative process behind them.

via meme-meme

photos by Justin Gignac