Meeah Williams Flies the Trash Flag (Brooklyn, New York, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Meeah Williams (Brooklyn, New York, USA)

July 4, 2014 - Today is Independence Day in the USA, and Meeah Williams is helping me celebrate the occasion with this amazing trash flag. I have always maintained that Trashpo is, at its core, a USA phenom with its focus on the excesses of consumer culture and accompanying plea for recycling and ways of living that are less materialistic and more in harmony with nature. Today, Trashpo seems downright patriotic. Meeah Williams’ trash flag is well worth a close up:

As you can see, Meeah Williams sewed this piece. I think I detect a nod to Jasper Johns’ iconic flag, only filtered through the Trashpo lens. Here is the other side:

Rebecca Guyver (Suffolk, UK) and Neil Gordon (Connecticut, USA) pioneered the trashquilt, and Meeah Williams adopts a similar approach to composition. The trash flag came in a beautiful pouch:

Here is the reverse side of the incredible trash flag pouch:

It was mailed in a plastic bag:

The zipper on the reverse side is a nice touch:

I am mostly speechless in the face of this work’s ambiguity, other than to praise its brilliance as mail-art. I recognize the time and effort as well as the thoughtfulness. As ever, many thanks to Brooklyn correspondent Meeah Williams.