VOA标准英语2009年-Works of Art Created From A Dump In San Fr

By Monaliza Noormohammadi
San Francisco
27 October 2009

A disposal company in San Francisco takes trash very seriously. For more than 15 years it has invited selected artists to create works of art out of the trash San Franciscans throw away. The artists are given full access to a studio near the company dump, paid a monthly stipend¹, and encouraged to create. The only stipulation²: 100 percent of what they make has to come from the dump next door.

 
James Sansing
For the past four months, this trash transfer site at the SF Recycling and Disposal Company was the supply room for artists James Sansing and David Hevel.

They spent countless³ hours digging through garbage. And in the end, they collected 21,000 pounds of trash, and transformed it into something very different.

Artist James Sansing took apart machines and reassembled them, creating a mysterious, colorless world.

David Hevel took a slightly different approach. Extravagant⁴ monkeys express his ideas of what consumer culture has come to.  "Basically if we're buying it, it's getting thrown away, and I was really overwhelmed by that process, seeing people's lives thrown away, perfectly⁵ good things thrown away," he said.

 
"The products that are being built today are not built to last. They're designed with a certain life in mind with the manufacturer," Sansing said.

In 2007, the United States accumulated more than 250 million tons of trash. But at least some of it was salvaged⁶ here.

James Sansing says that at a recent exhibit of the two artists' work his most popular piece was made of thrown-away photos. "I can project stories into things I find in the landfill, like people can project stories into these pieces that I made. It was for me just about removing people," he said.

 
David Hevel
The weekend exhibit, hosted by the SF Recycling and Disposal Company, drew hundreds of people. While David Hevel says his work isn't political, it does have a message. "I'm not making political work. I'm more of an artist that holds up a mirror to society."

"My hope is that people walk away with an emotion," Sansing says, "they remember and maybe possibly they'll think twice before they throw something away."

1 stipend   

n.薪贴；奖学金；养老金

参考例句：

• The company is going to ajust my stipend from this month onwards.从这一个月开始公司将对我的薪金作调整。
• This sum was nearly a third of his total stipend.这笔钱几乎是他全部津贴的三分之一。

2 stipulation   

n.契约，规定，条文；条款说明

参考例句：

• There's no stipulation as to the amount you can invest. 没有关于投资额的规定。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The only stipulation the building society makes is that house must be insured. 建屋互助会作出的唯一规定是房屋必须保险。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

4 extravagant   

adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的

参考例句：

• They tried to please him with fulsome compliments and extravagant gifts.他们想用溢美之词和奢华的礼品来取悦他。
• He is extravagant in behaviour.他行为放肆。

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

6 salvaged   

（从火灾、海难等中）抢救（某物）( salvage的过去式和过去分词 )； 回收利用（某物）

参考例句：

• The investigators studied flight recorders salvaged from the wreckage. 调查者研究了从飞机残骸中找到的黑匣子。
• The team's first task was to decide what equipment could be salvaged. 该队的首要任务是决定可以抢救哪些设备。