Michael Flaherty

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The Litter Experiment

2010
Intervention


The Litter Experiment was an intervention project where I placed delicate handmade porcelain sculptures of disposable Tim Horton's coffee cups around downtown St. John's. I observed and recorded what happened to the cups over the next several weeks. Tim Horton's, at once both iconically Canadian and iconic of litter, provided me with the visual material for this piece, and the timing of the project couldn't have been better - during the summer of 2010 a battle was waged between artists, business people and city council over the validity of an urban or street art aesthetic in commissioned murals. The Litter Experiment, my own version of street art, was more subtle, less confrontational, and decidedly studious.