Anna Perry and Nicola Hansby are working with Dunedin Dream Brokerage, in their first CBD pop-up since lockdown, to transform a vacant shop into The Clothing Bin.
The project was the brainchild of Hansby, who grew frustrated at seeing piles of rubbish dumped beside the clothing bin in Pine Hill Rd as she rode past on her way home.
After stopping to pick up an abandoned moon boot, she went home and started drawing it.
After Hansby invited Perry to do the same in her own neighbourhood, The Clothing Bin project was born.
"It’s quite incredible to see the things that people dump at a clothing bin — kitchen tables, children’s car seats, and rubbish, lots of rubbish," Hansby said.
"These spaces also seem to involve a kind of exchange, because often items that I have seen there in the morning are gone by the evening — so someone must have found a use for them."
The two artists, who both had painting practices, had gathered and cleaned up an array of unwanted objects, and these would be displayed along with paintings of bin objects.
Visitors would be encouraged to move the items in the exhibition, meaning it would be ever-changing, and there would be a series of workshops
The Clothing Bin project also had a reuse and recycling focus, with objects able to be rehomed or broken down into components for recycling.
"We want to encourage people to think differently about waste, and how they dispose of things they no longer have a use for," Perry said.
"And we want to highlight that something beautiful and thought-provoking can be made out of rubbish."
The Clothing Bin project opens tomorrow, in the former Scottish Shop at 17 George St, and will continue until December 15.
Workshops will be held from noon to 1.30pm on December 5, 7, 12, and 14.
A second Dunedin Dream Brokerage event, Project 39, will run from December 7 to 12 in the central city.
Presented by a collective of emerging artists working across fashion, photography, dance, moving image and sound, Project 39 reflects on "found space" and the artist spaces that are harder to find in the city.
