The value of rubbish in Francophone Chinese art installations

This article investigates the presentation and function of rubbish in transcultural art and re-thinks the aesthetic value of waste in the broad context of two contemporary theories of cultural production - the anthropology of waste and the cultural history of waste. It explores the possibilities that this art offers for new ways of perceiving and understanding waste that appeal both to our imagination and psyche. Rubbish, considered before the late nineteenth century as being outside, even opposed to, culture proper is reconceptualised in contemporary society, giving rise to a new, less negative, though no less complex, relationship between waste and culture. We focus on displays created by three francophone Chinese artists that, by means of the practices of recuperation and recycling, raise consciousness of social, political and/or environmental issues, leading to the viewer's cultural engagement in a trajectory of change. By taking into account the fact that each work is produced in a particular place by an artist who has inhabited more than one cultural space and whose work, consequently, cannot be dislocated, we explore how they make us aware of ourselves as human beings connected to other individuals, communities, nations and to the world and how they make visually apparent the reliance of the artist's sense of identity and belonging on the socio-political context(s) they have experienced.