BAG PROJECTS

Using non-traditional media and techniques, Garry
Benet creates subjects that are a direct concern to
him, yet speak of larger issues. His life long
experiences in the arts, his world travels and his
social activism eventually led Benet to choose
projects involving paper bags as a main focus because
of their representational history as important
instruments of ideas that are conceived in one way
but perceived as another.

The BAG PROJECTS are commentaries on how our society deals with these very topics. There is a certain amount of deception and concealment involved in the use of paper bags. It has long been a tradition to hide our sensitive, our private, our disposables in paper bags. Such things as liquor and sexually explicit materials are sold and delivered in brown paper bags to hide them from prying eyes. We use these same bags to contain and dispose of our
personal refuse. The bags are further recycled into
accommodations for our abandoned, sometimes providing
shelter for the homeless.

Garry has created bags ranging in size from 1/2 inch
to 7 feet. The bags are either hand made or
commercially produced depending on their intended use.
Some are covered in a polymer resin to make them
weather proof, some are painted and some plain and
vulnerable. Most of the bags contain objects that
enhance their artistic theme.

It is my mission, by participating in CRACKS IN THE
PAVEMENT, to create public participation in both the
conceptual completion of my TRASH BAG PROJECT and
public awareness to the tiny bits of debris that seems
to be overlooked when it comes to environmental
concerns. The finders of my artwork will be ask to
fill the bags with the small trash found in their
respective surrounding areas. They then can either
dispose of the entire trash filled bag or empty it and
continue to fill and empty it where ever they travel
or they can take the trash filled bag home and keep it
as an original signed work of art that they
participated in completing.