ReTHANKS
Click on each image for enlargement and description.
ReThanks was the result of a public art residency commissioned by the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture Public Art Residency at the 27th Avenue Solid Waste Management Facility. Morton orchestrated a community project that built awareness of the city’s generation of recyclable trash through an invitation to participants to make and offer their gratitude to the workers at 27th Ave. – who touch this trash each day, and on whose work we rely to keep order in our daily lives.

Participating makers crafted individual gestures of gratitude in the form of flowers made from their own recyclable trash – plastics, aluminum, cardboard. Once made, these flowers were assembled as a cascading textile-like display that replicates the seemingly unending flow of recyclables we generate and that these workers sort everyday – but, this flow was transformed into seemingly endless gratitude, because each flower carried a note of thanks from its maker. After the installation, selected flowers were assembled into gifts to present to each worker.

Project development/on-site - April  - July 2016
ReThanks Public Involvement - August -  December 2016
ReThanks Assembly - December 2016 - February 2017
Installation - March 2017 - October 2017

www.rethanksaz.com
Article in American Craft, August-September 2017