Background
Adrian Kondratowicz
Elena, the volunteer (TRASH project at St. Nicholas Park)
Single use plastic film on panel
24 x 24 inches
2021
During the pandemic NYC Parks became the social gathering place for New Yorkers in all boroughs. With indoor places closed, most people flocked to open green spaces. The volume of people using the parks increased to new highs and with it so did the trash. Most parks are understaffed and during the pandemic that became very apparent.
In 2015 the TRASH project launched a new initiative at St. Nicholas Park to help and create accessible and consistent programming and develop volunteering opportunities such as clean ups and beautification projects.
In the summer of 2020 we were contacted by one of our volunteers and residents of Harlem, Steven Leslie, who wanted to start a clean up group for a local high school that his daughter attended near the park. Every Wednesday during the pandemic Steve and the group have diligently worked to help keep St. Nicholas Park, clean and beautiful for all the park goers in Harlem.
The work in the show is an image of Elena cleaning up at one of our first pandemic clean ups at St. Nicholas Park. Completed entirely out of single use plastic, the piece speaks to the group's effort and commitment to public space and community stewardship as well as to the TRASH project ethos of protecting the oceans and keeping a balance between using and giving back to the Harlem community. To date Elena has completed over 30 hours of volunteering in the park and has joined our gardening group. Most of our volunteers avg 4 to 8 hours per season.
Her and the group's work were essential and it kept our community clean and beautiful during a difficult time in the city. They filled in a gap that complimented our monthly community clean ups by showing up and doing the weekly dirty work and helping out the park staff.
