Canstruction - Food Can Sculptures [40 images] Help Raise Hunger Awareness.

Founded in 1992, Canstruction's mission is to engage, amaze and inspire the community to work together raising canned food to feed hundreds of thousands of hungry people.




Canstruction® is a design/build competition showcasing the talents of design and construction industry professionals and students they mentor.





At events held around the world, teams can spend months planning their structure but are given just 12 hours to defy expectations, logic, and gravity as they build fantastic sculptures from thousands of cans of food.






Driven by the knowledge that their structures will change lives – by lifting the spirits of those in need, by raising public awareness, and most importantly, by filling the shelves of local food banks – dedicated volunteers work tirelessly to bring their creations to life. The following day, the super-sized masterpieces are judged in a variety of categories as these unconventional art exhibits are opened to the public, the cost of admission – just one can of food.








Canstruction® is using one can as a catalyst for change. One can to represent the building blocks of these massive sculptures. One can to prove that every act of kindness makes a difference. Through the generosity of volunteers, celebrity judges, and members of the community, Canstruction® has contributed millions of pounds of food to community food banks – demonstrating that we can win the fight against hunger.




















The information and above images represent "Canstructures" from 2006- 2009, courtesy of Canstructution.

Another Artist With The Same POV: BCXSY's Golden Glory

above: detail from BCXSY's Golden Glory project

This is the third post about a group of artists to make a point about mass consumerism by gold-plating mundane objects.

How long is an eternity?
How does one quantify the unquantifiable?
What is the span of one day compared with endless time and space?

BCXSY is pleased to present FOREVER! - a collection of uniquely individual and materially rich products that explores how the function, aesthetics, and emotions of design can help to define the indefinable.

In an era of mass production and haste, BCXSY slows down and takes a closer look at what it means to last FOREVER!

Above is how artists Cohen and Yamamoto describe their work titled Forever!

"Golden Glory" Materials: mass-produced plastic toys and everyday objects - hand gilded with 23.75k gold-leaf, acrylic-glass plate.








As described by the artists:

"The exclusive one-offs that comprise GOLDEN GLORY explore the necessity of cherishing meaningful objects. Through the laborious art of hand-gilding, common plastic novelties and generic trinkets transcend the realm of the mass produced and meaningless and become truly remarkable modern day keepsakes."

Consisting of several subsets, Golden Glory is only a small part of the Forever! project. But it's the part that echoes other art works and limited produced pieces, specifically those of Tobias Wong and Big Game.


Above: Tobias Wong's gold McDonald's coffee stirrer from his "Indulgences" collection.


Above: Big Game's New Rich Gold Bic Pen Cap

Don't get me wrong, I'm not pointing this out to imply that their work is not entirely original or worth exploring, on the contrary. I just think it's interesting how many artists have gilded mundane and mass produced objects as either a way to mock or reflect society or- as in this case- to illustrate the transformation of a common object to a treasured one. When considered, what makes an item 'treasured' has really been defined by that which society considers valuable, in this case the luxe of gold. Hence, the artists are all basically saying the same thing.

Tobias Wong's Little Indulgences and Big Game's New Rich projects both gilded mass produced items. Read and see all about them here.


about BCXSY

(photograph: Sheri Avraham)

BCXSY is a cooperative between designers Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto. BCXSY has several other wonderful projects and pieces worth seeing, be sure to check them out here.