One Man’s Trash Turns into This Rhode Islander’s Treasure

Photography courtesy of Thomas Deininger

Thomas Deininger’s art is pure garbage. And yet, onlookers flock to see his latest designs.

For more than twenty years, the Tiverton-based artist has scoured trash from Ocean State beaches and sidewalks to create exquisite sculptures of birds, fish and bumblebees — with a twist.

Take his “Millennium Falcon Falcon,” for example. Viewed head-on, it’s a magnificent falcon perched atop a gauntlet. But step just a few paces to the side and you discover the hundreds of bits of plastic junk — a worn AT-AT, a riot of Stormtrooper figurines, Chewbacca nestled into a purse — that make up the sculpture.

A painter and avid surfer in his youth, Deininger became committed to the environment early on. After a trip to Fiji, where he saw trash washing up on shorelines and clogging the tropical landscape, he transitioned from painting to sculpture. He asked himself what he wanted to say with his art and began pulling creation from the destruction.   

“We’re exporting this single-use lifestyle. There’s no forethought to the future. We’re breaking all kinds of ecological principles. I knew that was just going to become more problematic,” he says. “I combine abstract sculpture pop and social critique that do sort of absurdist tongue-in-cheek social commentary along with very realistic, natural portraits of my muses.”

Photography courtesy of Thomas Deininger

His sculptures challenge perceptions of materialism and the dangers of being left within our own ignorance.

“I use them as Trojan horses to talk about other things like politics,” says Deininger, who also receives junk donations from friends and patrons. “If you look at the pieces, it’s just these little digs in there where you get to do a lot of juvenile, insane, funny things. I’m like, ‘Now that I have you here, I’m going to tell a few jokes.’”

With works that can range from days to months before completion, his art is reminiscent of both resilience and fragility, of evolution and the strength to continue. Our waste, he argues, is more than just carelessness.

“Here’s the thing about consumption: It’s complicated. We’re just a huge creative species and as much as I rail against consumerism, there’s a part of me that is fascinated by the bounty it creates,” he says. “That’s a beautiful part of us that’s undermining us now. I’m in this love-hate relationship.”

Whether a social critique, absurdism or a statement on nature’s preservation, Deininger is truly influenced by the responsibility to speak with his audience through his craft.

“It’s this thing about the illusion … when you snap somebody like that, you must pay attention. If that happens, if at first it can disorient them, then they can see it and be entertained and suddenly, it’s kind of funny,” he says. “Someone said that I make heartbreaking sculptures. They got it. I feel like I have to pretend to laugh it off, but I’m saddened. I’m troubled. I have anxiety. I don’t think we’re being responsible stewards of the planet that produced us and will continue to sustain us. We’re being short-sighted.” tomdeiningerstudios.com