MANILA, Philippines – Not everything that’s trash needs to end up in the landfill. Some of the junk have in fact been recrafted into works of art that drive home the message that even the most overlooked and seemingly useless objects can do some good.

Take the art of Ann Wizer, which hopes to serve as a wake-up call to the environmental abuse of the planet. While there are certainly many others like her pursuing this advocacy through various ways, this visual artist has opted to focus on garbage that has often been overlooked: factory waste.

For her exhibit “Invisible: Unseen People, Unseen Waste,” Wizer collaborated with the “unseen” sector of society―the elderly and unemployed mothers in Malibay, Pasay City―to create “Trampoline,” a quilt made of plastic bags, computer parts, plastic lighters, and compact discs, which highlights the ingenuity and skill of Filipino women in the almost forgotten craft of crocheting.

The exhibit underscores the obvious: seemingly worthless waste can still be transformed into something useful. “Almost everybody’s into (recycling) tetra packs; nobody was doing plastic,” Wizer notes, explaining her unorthodox choice of medium―old toothbrushes, bottles of shaving cream, and even some toxic waste.

The artist wants people to see these “junk” in a different perspective. “By making something creative out of plastic bags, the women see it now as something useful to them,” Wizer says. “In that way, we can keep these out of landfills.”

“Connecting the dots” is how Wizer describes her decades-long work related to environmental issues. This art form, she adds, spares the environment from toxic waste, addresses poverty by giving women income-generating work, educates people on global concerns, and encourages creativity among the women.

Wizer works with Gems of Heart Foundation, a non-government organization located within the community, that teaches women how to crochet using discarded plastic bags. The foundation gives out crochet hooks and trains the women to craft bags and other household items. The men also do crochet, but make use of computer wires.

Wizer’s exhibit also showcases the output of her work with trash-pickers in Indonesia. Among the products of this interaction are “Executive Decision,” a two-meter long chair, and “Flotsam and Jetsam,” two-meter tall sofas made of post-consumer waste such as shredded plastic toothpaste tubes and other rubbish produced by corporations. The artist cites her inspiration for this: a pillow made from shredded plastics given by a friend.

The furniture pieces are Wizer’s commentary on the travesty of corporate managers and government officials “who are not addressing the staggering environmental abuse and are in fact contributors to environment degradation.”

Her photographs of the trash-pickers and of the landfill in Indonesia are also featured in the exhibit.

“Invisible: Unseen People, Unseen Waste” runs until Oct. 31 at Galleria Duemila, 210 Loring St., Pasay City. For inquiries, please call 831-9990 and 833-9990, or email duemila@mydestiny.net or visit www.galleriaduemila.com.