19 GARBAGE.indd

TOTAL RUBBISH
Justin Gignac cuts
a strange silhouette
on the New York
skyline; you may
spot him peering into
waste bins in Central
Park, or crouched
on a pavement in
the early hours on
NYU campus near
a pile of interesting
looking rubbish.
WORDS: Rohini Wahi
28
02.08
IDEA SPACE
www.spacesmagazine.co.uk
IN FACT, HE IS COLLECTING RUBBISH.
Or pieces of New York City’s culture, to
document instances in time in the city ‘as
archaeologists and scientists have done
for thousands of years’.
Gignac is the founder of NYC Garbage,
which began as a challenge to himself
as an advertising and graphic design
student. His objective was to prove the
value of packaging by taking something
unsaleable and making it desirable.
He collected Broadway tickets, coffee
cups, subway passes, and lottery tickets,
packaged them in a plastic cube that
won’t leak or smell and pitched up a
makeshift stall on Times Square, selling
‘genuine NYC garbage’ for $10 a cube.
Reactions were mixed; some thought it
a joke, some bought them as souvenirs
from the city and others were disgusted
by the idea.
He talks openly about the change in
perception and desirability of an object
when the price is increased. At $10 NYC
Garbage was seen as a gag souvenir
but when the value was raised to $50 it
became a piece of art. Numbering and
dating the cubes also increased the
sense of uniqueness.
Gignac compares his work with
scientific excavations, and talks about
how each box encapsulates moments
in our time. The boxes at first glance
seem quirky, but there is a romantic
sensibility to it. They begin to resonate
with memories and the poignant histories
of the city.
NYC Garbage is a self-contained
example of ‘material culture’ which
Gignac is interested in; a living, breathing
piece of the city; a portrait of how New
Yorkers live their lives. Gignac reflects
on the time people spend picking their
cube and what makes a person connect
emotionally to one cube in particular.
Finally Gignac enquires, did I know
‘that New York’s foundations rest
on a garbage dump?’ With this new
knowledge, I imagine him drifting off
towards the horizon to unearth the
treasures in the hidden depths of The City
That Never Sleeps.
Justin Gignac
T. +1 646 303 23 22
nycgarbage.com