You could describe Michael Meneghetti’s art as rubbish and he wouldn’t be offended.
The performance artist is roaming the streets of Altona North and Brooklyn collecting garbage and attaching it to himself as part of Hobsons Bay’s Art in Public Places program.
Meneghetti’s efforts will be filmed and then screened later this month at Brooklyn.
Behind all the junk is a serious message about how much waste is produced on earth by humans – himself included.
“It’s based on performances I started over the last year in East Timor, which were called scartato, which is Italian for discarded,” the artist says.
“I wanted to play with it even more by exploring my local area – and Brooklyn’s kind of a bit notorious for being one of the most polluted suburbs in Melbourne. Definitely, there’s a stigma around the pollution of the west,” he said.
“Overall, it’s a fun little project because I end up collecting as much rubbish as there is in the area and take it off the street.
“I did the first performance on Clean Up Australia Day. One time, I went to the end of my street in Kyle Road and I was completely covered in rubbish before I made it any further.”
Performances throughout April are being filmed and will then be screened across three shopfronts at 10-14 Eames Avenue, Brooklyn, on April 30 from 6-8pm.
For more information about Art in Public Places, visit www.artinpublicplaces.com.au.
