THIS PAGE : ( TOP LEFT ) COURTESY OF TOM DEININGER ; ( RIGHT ) INTERIOR COURTESY OF THE INDEPENDENT
NEWSPAPER / MICHAEL DERR ; EXTERIOR COURTESY OF OF ROSE HILL BOOK EXCHANGE / LAURA POINTEK .
FROM TOP : Deininger prepares a rooster sculpture . Plastic toys await their next life as art . Deininger trims the wing of a barn swallow sculpture .
Trash to Treasure
A Bristol-based artist crafts painterly sculptures out of plastic waste .
Tom Deininger ’ s latest work , at press time , is an aquamarine eye . Done up in
pink eyeshadow , black liner and false lashes , the eye appears to hover before a flesh-colored background . But , as you move toward it , the illusion — optical , in more than one sense — unravels into a riot of dolls , mesh and other plastic ephemera projecting several inches off the wall . The toy dolls are positioned in randy ways , but that ’ s not the uncomfortable part . It ’ s this shift in perception , so quick and so disconcerting — it ’ s an eye , no : it ’ s a jumble of trash — that makes his work linger long after you ’ ve looked . (@ tdeininger . Go on ; we ’ ll wait .)
Deininger ’ s purpose was born out of an extended backpacking trip . Nearly three decades ago and fresh out of Newport ’ s Salve Regina University with a degree in art , the artist longed to see the world .
“ When I was travelling , the islands in the South Pacific were beginning to embrace consumerism ,” he says in a telephone interview from his home in Bristol . “ And you think to yourself : Where are they going to put this stuff ? So it became a curiosity about our world and what consumerism looks like as it ’ s farmed out to the rest of the world . These travels woke up my mind to politics and the environment .”
Deininger returned to Rhode Island and continued making art , first with realist painting , then abstracts and , finally , a combination of both that led to the work he ’ s creating today . The masters — Velazquez ; Sargent — could depict an eye in a handful of brush strokes , Deininger says , and the illusion only reveals itself upon close inspection . He found he could create a similar effect with plastic .
“ This thing I came upon , it could present a painting challenge , but it could also address these environmental concerns ,” he says . “ The message and the medium just joined forces .”
He sources plastic from beaches , from the street , from thrift shops and from friends in exchange for art . The items are then sorted at a studio out of a converted cow barn in Tiverton .
Three or four years back , Deininger took a break from art and “ retreated to the land ,” he says , to create an edible landscape on his Tiverton property . | | CONTINUED ON PAGE 95
The Story Behind the Rose Hill Book Shed
A bibliophile ’ s paradise would be dark , damp and a mystery in more ways than one . Oh , and it ’ d be chock`ablock full of free books . The book shed at the Rose Hill transfer station in Peace Dale is such a place . The building — concrete , no electricity , somehow cold and humid no matter the time of year — has housed community book donations for years . Before that , the books were stored in an actual shed , says retired town employee Bill McCusker , but even he can ’ t pinpoint when it all got started . A few volunteers keep tabs on the space , tidying up and emptying donation boxes , but they work behind the scenes and of their own volition . It ’ s as if everyone in South Kingstown and Narragansett just decided : books are always worth saving . Says McCusker , “ A lot of good books don ’ t make it into the garbage because of that book exchange .” – C . N .
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MARCH 2021 43