CRI听力:Waste Redesign - Retouch. Rethink. Return

Taking discarded items and making new art may not sound like a new concept. But it all depends on who's doing the creating. Some eco-conscious students from Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Art are trying to continue this trend.

Their Waste-Redesign Project in Beijing's 798 Art District is allowing them to unleash their creative side using old to make new. Their Redesign motto? Retouch. Rethink. Return.

Andrea Hunt has more:

Redesign installations are constructed from random objects like old shoes, vintage sunglasses, and even car keys and tea bags. There are even beautifully glowing lamps fashioned from ordinary paper cups. And a lamp made of blossoming CD petals across from delicate earrings made from teabags and recycled paper.

Twenty-one year old Cao Yuxi from Hebei Province is studying at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing. He explains that they were motivated by items they found lying around their classroom and work studio.

"Usually they just throw them away then they become trash or something else, so we thought that we could change it. Because we are the artist, we can change the old things to art work, that's what we do. But usually, we learn art, we do some art work. We usually buy some useful things and we make them to our art work to finish our lessons. Then they throw them away, they become trash."

In conjunction with the 'Genius Program' at Ullen Center for Contemporary Art, students from the Central Academy of Fine Art set up the exhibit with organizer Jake Chen.

"Our Genius Association is in fact a public platform that UCCA provides to the general public so they can participate in a deeper way to our public programs. So, we actually collect wonderful ideas from everyone. And if the idea's really good and applicable, we help them realize their dreams and proposals. In fact, this waste redesign, I think through this showcase, that the students are really creative. They can create value from those recycled things."

Jeannie Chu from Beijing and her friend have created a project using traditional Chinese dress fabrics to style around vintage sunglasses.

"You can see they're traditional clothes, you can buy the clothes from the market. These glasses, maybe people think these glasses are out of fashion, but we think not. When we're a child, we use these clothes, but I think today, mixed with the glasses, it can bring a new view. And I think glasses today are a fashion icon."

The glasses are colorful with various prints in heart shaped, retro frames. Chu explains that the project is called, "But." But, what?

"I think "but" is a point between old and new. I think beauty, but…. I think it's old fashioned, but…Just like people used to think this is old fashioned but we think it's not old fashioned. Just, you want to make a new change. I think this can put you on a point to achieve your new goals."

Li Shuang is from Beijing and has studied art the last three years. She's taken some old, egg shaped children's toys and hand-painted each one to represent different countries. They are placed on top of their respective countries on a flat, wooden map of the earth.

She says her generation of Chinese art students has a unique perspective to offer.

"These types of projects reflect our vitality and innovation. We take a new perspective; we observe life and have views, complaints and concerns about modern time and society. Since recycling, environmental protection and green life is widely advocated nowadays, we think it is our responsibility and duty to care more on this issue. As college students, we should contribute our bit to the protection of the Earth."

Ray Liu from Beijing believes that this new generation of artists is evolving but still needs time because some students have difficulty expressing themselves.

"I think in China, design and art are difficult to separate. There are many young designers but few of them can make good projects. So, I think thinking and watching and painting and doing something is very important."

So what is art anyway? When are linked car keys fashioned into a purse art and when are they just strung together car keys?

Jeannie Chu suggests that perhaps it's about the way people see things.

"I think life is a kind of art, I think everybody can do this. You may think, I can do it too. I just wanted people to know it in my life. And I put it together to make a new thing. I will be happy. I think people will feel this. Life is art. And everything in our routine, you can maybe create a new art but I think it's just a thing to make people happy."

So, as Jeannie says, one person's trash is another's creative tool. It may be just how you see it.

For CRI, I'm Andrea Hunt.