What is junk art?

Ever seen a piece of scrap metal on the side of the road and thought, that's a neat looking thing.
Too bad it is junk and is obviously useless." If so, then you are guilty of a common fallacy:
underestimating the power of junk. Like a blank canvas, what you might consider to be junk can
be transformed into a wondrous work of art. All that you need is a little creativity and elbow
grease, and you too can create a superb piece of junk(art)!
Brief history of junk art
In order to tell the history of junk art, I should tell you about its predecessor, found art. Found art
emerged in the early 20th century and indicates that the work is made completely from
manufactured objects that the artist found him or herself. It was considered a radical art form in
its early years because its value is determined from the context in which it is made, redefining
the very idea of art at the time. An artist named Marcel Ducamp is considered the father of
found art, although he referred to his work as "readymade". One of his most famous works,
"Fountain" (pictured right), was made from a urinal and caused quite an uproar in the art world
when it was shown in 1917, so much so that it was rejected by the 1917 jury of the Society of
Independent Artists . The concept of found art was soon adopted by the Dada movement with
artists like Man Ray and Francis Picabia, progressing through the 20th century into the new
millennium. Junk art is a subgenre of found art in that it is made from found objects that are
discarded and labeled as "junk".
From a distance, it looks like any other 2-D painting. There is a face replete with flesh tones on
top of a neck rising out of a collared blue shirt. The face is capped with nondescript brown hair,
and the background is simply dark. Moving closer, anomalies begin to creep in. This painting is
larger than first glance suggested, and something is off with its highlights. The shading seems ...
hyperreal. Coming closer still, you realize that this isn't a painting, it's a 4x8-foot sheet of
plywood covered with things. And only when you are as close as you can get do you realize that
those "things" are recognizable. The flesh tones are naked dolls and pink tennis shoes; the hair
includes brown toy cars and discarded combs; the shirt consists of blue marbles and a
damaged Sonic the Hedgehog figurine; and the background contains broken pieces of LP
records -- among other things. Many, many other things. It's a veritable "I Spy" game on
steroids.
Congratulations! You have just had a close encounter of the Junk Art kind.
How Long Was the Movement?
Junk Art became an "official" movement when the critic Lawrence Alloway assigned those two
words to one of Robert Rauschenberg's combines in the mid-1950s. This is shortly before other
movements away from abstraction -- Pop Art, and Junk's kissing cousinFunk Art -- were born.
Of the three, Junk Art has proved itself the most durable movement: it continues to be made. In
fact, there is no end in sight, seeing that we keep manufacturing items that end up in the trash.

What Are the Key Characteristics of Junk Art?

Illusion of Worthlessness
When one takes the time to look closely, the junk in Junk Art can be confusing because, well
... it's junk! If it hadn't been welded, glued, stitched, or otherwise affixed to other pieces of
junk, it would be taking up space in a landfill. Separately, the pieces are useless and
unwanted; together they make art. By the way, the "worthlessness" is truly illusionary. Those
Rauschenberg combines mentioned above? You would need to have well over $10 million
US in liquid assets to begin to seriously bid on one at auction.

Deliberately Ugly Materials

Only a sociopath would argue that pink plastic hair rollers, un-spooled cassette tape, or the
electronic guts of a VCR are beautiful. Nearly any object utilized in Junk Art is unremarkable
and unsightly in and of itself. The magic comes from the composition. The way the artist
assembles the castaway pieces is frequently tantalizing.

Commercial and Urban Waste

Though unstated, Junk Art implies that the human race lost its way at some point during the
modern era and conflated "material goods" with "cheap." We will buy a pair of poorly-made
shoes, for example, and throw them out when the glue (not the stitching) lets the sole flap
free. When inventory doesn't move, stores pitch it into dumpsters and take tax write-offs.
Appliances, electronics, and even automobiles have a planned obsolescence factor -- they
are built to eventually fail, thus ensuring that we will buy more things to replace them. Junk
Art provides irrefutable evidence that, yes, we behave this way.

Consumerism on Trial
This characteristic is also implied. What does it say about society in developed nations that
we throw things out at a staggering rate? And what does it say about Junk artists that they
take the discarded, repurpose it, and elevate it to "fine art?"