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♪♪ >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Briana Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and welcome to a special edition of "NJ Spotlight News."

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

As we continue our journey through public art across the state with our new digital documentary series, "Painting Community."

Tonight we take you to Asbury Park where activist artist Bordalo, who's known around the world for transforming trash into towering animal sculptures and murals, is leaving an indelible mark on the Jersey Shore.

The Portugal-based muralist spent days working alongside locals there, collecting discarded plastic from the beach and streets and reimagining it as vibrant, three-dimensional public art that forces all of us to confront our relationship with waste, the natural world and each other.

Take a look.

If you are placing something in the street where everybody is going to see it, you better have something to say.

If you are just making something beautiful, you are losing a good opportunity to talk about things that matter.

I hope that people look at themselves and understand that everybody is part of something.

We'll always have a little impact.

If you are painting in a place where no one is going to see it, I don't know, I think it's a waste of time.

I remember drawing, sketching and painting since almost ever.

I did graffiti for a long time.

I always liked to share ideas, to have something to communicate.

With the graffiti, you communicate with the other writers, with the other graffiti guys.

But then I grew up and I found, well, I will need to do something for my life, which wouldn't be just writing my name everywhere.

The first contact was Bordalo.

- It was in 2017 and that's been a journey to get him here that it's almost like surreal that he is here.

I was in Miami and I saw a piece he did at Wynwood Walls.

It was like fascinating to me and I just remember sitting staring at like an old airplane with like a cougar and it was giant and it was trash and it was alive and then I was like, "Oh my God, that's a porta potty."

Here in Asbury Park, our only industry is consumption.

(laughing) Consumption of food, consumption of the beach, consumption of drinks and that's great and all, but as we've seen in our history, it does not make for a sustainable and healthy community.

Arts and culture is the only commodity that we have.

(gentle music) - We have a public arts commission set up 20 years ago before we even had a mural to approve or disapprove murals.

But we've never turned down a mural, so.

(laughs) It first started with five murals.

The next year was five more murals.

And then every year after that, about five more murals.

And so now in the last 10 years, we've done about 62 murals.

We give artists full creative license to do what they want as a response to being an Asbury, but what that takes is having the time to like get to know Asbury, get to know our community, get to see some of the things in our community.

And so I started delving into what should our public art look like?

If it's a reflection of the people, what should it look like?

People leave so much garbage on our beach, and it takes so many people to clean it all the time.

I mean, we thought, well, what if we put trash on a wall and talk about the environmental effects of this garbage you're leaving behind?

I don't think the plastic is evil.

Plastic is a material that's very useful for a lot of things.

The problem is the way that we use discarded plastic.

We use a lot of plastic in things we don't need, and it probably end up in the ocean, and also because some of those discarded plastics are not even recyclable.

This is part of a series of works that we call "The Big Trash Animals," where we create portraits of animals with trash, with the contamination, with the waste.

And the idea is to use the materials that are destroying the fauna or destroying their habitats to create images of the victims.

You could ask me, "Why do you just make animals?"

I think the human part is already present there because all these objects, all these materials that we are using came out from humans.

- What is destroying the planet will also destroy ourselves.

I think the only thing that doesn't contribute is doing nothing.

- I was in Porto and Lisbon, and I saw his work, and I teach a public arts class in Ocean County, and my students have been studying him, so they're gonna come visit, and it's amazing to see it here in Asbury Park.

Unbelievable.

This is so exciting.

He's an activist first and foremost, and this is his weapon.

I'm better to communicate with art pieces than with words.

All the big companies want to put all the pressure on consumers, on us.

It's like, it's your fault.

You have to recycle and put things in the right place.

Which is a little bit truth, but everybody has some responsibility.

You can't always be just pointing to others.

It's one thing to be an activist and use words.

It's a whole other thing to use objects and aesthetics.

With Bordallo's process, you source all the plastic that he has asked for.

They literally give you a manifest of plastic to find, and they do that to encourage you to have a responsibility.

We know things that we're going to use.

Car bumpers, trash bins, bicycle tires, fruit boxes, garden hoses, toys, helmets to make the ice.

He saved tons and tons of trash by his process.

Our fire marshal and our fire chief helped us clean the garbage, which was pretty amazing.

We have the Asbury Park Green Team, which is here to work on environmental issues that our city's facing.

Getting everybody together to do this project just creates this sort of like, we have a barn, and let's put on a play, and you're gonna do this, and you're gonna do that, and that feels really cool in a small community because then everybody has sort of responsibility and stewardship.

These look so heavy, and they're not.

The city's a playground.

Everything is possible.

To talk, to share ideas, to criticize something, to be provocative, to get to the point, to make the people think about it.

And even with the stuff that I'm doing, even if you think it's beautiful sometimes, the idea is definitely not to make something beautiful out of trash.

When you stop and look, you see the big portrait, but if you get closer, you lose the sense of the image and you get the close of all the textures.

So why is that waste on the wall cut and assembled in a way to make this portrait?

I want people to look at it and understand what we are talking about, to stop, look and think.

(upbeat music) - Around here, even in the beach and behind the buildings, there are some families of foxes that came out early in the morning to check the garbage cans, to go hunting.

It is difficult for them to live among us.

- Reminds me of when I used to watch the foxes in 2019.

Hundreds of people would be there, and it's like watching them grow up on the boardwalk.

It's beautiful.

It's amazing.

Very cool, very different, and I love it that it's recycled materials.

And it pays tribute to the fox.

Yeah, our little tribute to our foxes.

I, too, am a trash artist.

I work on a much smaller scale, but I'm happy to see that trash is a component of this, and all of Bordallo's work has an environmental theme to it, and I just think it's very important to bring that to the public consciousness through art.

I really haven't seen murals like this in Asbury.

I think it's so cool that they're bringing something that was just going to be thrown away back to life.

It's definitely going to be inspiring for a lot of people.

Public art can mean a whole host of things.

It has its own relationship with the viewer.

Art shouldn't just be pretty.

It can have a message and it can teach, and I think it's very important for us to have teaching moments.

I think it's really much more democratic when you work in the street, because you are definitely doing it for everybody.

Most of the people that are going to see your artworks in the street, they might not even go to the museums.

In our town, 36% of the population lives under the poverty level, unfortunately, and they'll never get to a museum.

The same people that would never walk into a gallery might have a very fun time with a mural, where they're like picking their favorite mural, and then they're going up to the mural, and they're posing in front of the mural, and then they're taking a picture, and then they're sharing it with friends.

Public art is so important.

It's an experience that doesn't cost anything.

In a town that's losing space rapidly because of gentrification, it's a very important thing to preserve space and experience that is free.

I think that public art is democratic, is the most democratic art, because it's there for everybody.

You don't need a ticket, you don't need to pay.

Everybody can go there any time.

There is no hour, there is no time to be closed or open.

That's also why I think public art has a big responsibility.

Some young artist is going to see Bordalo do that and think, "I can do that."

I think it's like a magical thing to see art.

It's hard to articulate because it's just a feeling, right?

Why is music important?

Why is a good meal important?

It's this idea that for even one millisecond, you leave your head, you're in that moment with this thing that someone created.

There is one of this in the world ever in existence.

It really matters.

I think if you influence the people, people have to influence policy because people vote so they can talk to each other.

I want to open the conversation.

I think that this is the beginning.

Now, Asbury Park is a city whose identity has long been shaped by creativity.

From its historic carousel house to its modern boardwalk murals, this project is a whole lot more than an artwork.

It's an important chapter in reclaiming public space, strengthening community and defining what a sustainable cultural future looks like.

For more on that, I'm joined by Jenn Hampton.

She's the curator and founder of the Wooden Walls Project and one of the driving forces behind bringing Bordalo to Asbury Park.

And Jenn, welcome.

It is so wonderful-- - Thank you so much for having me.

- To have you in here.

So I wonder when you first encountered his work and what stuck out to you?

Why were you like, I gotta bring this to Asbury, come hell or high water, it's happening?

- It's interesting.

I feel like, well, just to make a long story short, or I'll try to, Bordalo's work, because of social media, I've already encountered it, right?

So I had the opportunity to go to Art Basel in Miami, and he was part of the Wynwood Walls, and he had this amazing sculpture that was a recycled plane that they took parts of, and then he put in the context of the project, it's all these beautiful murals in a courtyard, and you look up and there's this giant, like oversized sculpture, and you're like, oh my God, that's made of garbage.

So I just became obsessed.

And of course, in your brain, at that point in my sort of journey with art, I was like, how do you even do this?

Where do I start?

And so I kind of just like, you know, planted a seed in my brain, like, continue to think about him as part of the project.

Yeah, because in the documentary, you say that your journey, speaking of journey, started in 2017.

Yeah.

Why were you so committed?

Clearly, it took a lot of years to get here.

Why was that?

And why did you stay committed?

Given, I'm sure, lots of other projects that I'm sure came your way in between.

So the Wynwood Walls, just to go back for a second, the Wynwood Walls started in 2015, so this is our 10th year, and I think for me, it was like a love letter.

I felt like when I came to Asbury, I was so inspired by its architecture, and I realized very quickly, this architecture, like why was it here?

Why are these big, huge buildings with beautiful ornaments?

Like, it doesn't make sense.

They almost seem abandoned.

Like, what's going on here?

And I think that a lot of people encounter that, and they're like, what is happening?

And so I always felt like, oh, this sort of architecture and this sort of craftsmanship and what these architects and designers did in the late 20s, early 30s is public art.

And so I just felt like, oh, well, you know what we should do?

We should put art on these buildings so that we can change the perception of Asbury Park.

Meaning like a lot of times you'll hear, you used to hear the narrative like, "Isn't it so sad that these buildings aren't being utilized?"

And I think that that is a sad thing for me to hear, or a lot of times the retort is, "Well, why is it sad?"

And it allows for dialogue, right?

And the idea that someone thinks that it's sad, even though it's standing in all of its grandeur, it's like somebody worked really hard on that and it's still there, and it's still there present for all of us to interact with, like just because it doesn't have a coffee shop and it doesn't give it any more or less value.

- Right, it holds so much history, it tells its own story.

- I mean, in other countries, they would just put it up as is and that would be it.

We would just enjoy it for beauty, for beauty's sake, right?

And I do think that our mayor, that James Bradley, who commissioned these pieces, understood the value of aesthetics in what we call like art tourism now.

I wasn't thinking about any of that except for that I was inspired by these buildings.

And so I thought, well, what if I take wooden walls that have been placed on these buildings to sort of protect these architectural wonders, and I just put art on them.

And we have a dialogue with what contemporary art is.

So then what it does is that you don't see that a building is not being utilized.

You see that there's a piece of art on it, and then all of a sudden it's like, oh, how cool, there's a mural, you know, or there's a sculpture, or there's an installation.

- But it draws people to that town.

It becomes the identity of that town, does it not?

And you're a product of your environment.

- Of course, and I think all good things.

I wasn't setting out to like, oh, I'm gonna change the perception.

But now that I'm in it, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna change the perception of Asbury Park because I do believe that if you look at our history and our past, arts and culture is our lifeblood.

And if we don't acknowledge it and support it, then who are we?

I mean, who are we as a city that was set up for, you know, arts and culture in the big bucket, but what we, as Brace, really known for is music.

- Now, and I wanna get to that.

You've said that, you know, public art is not always pretty.

It can make people uncomfortable.

It can make people curious, question themselves, question a lot of things.

What type of reactions have you gotten, not just from his work, but from the public art that's now on display?

I mean, I think it's important to have dialogue, right?

To give people an opportunity to think or not think, which is also a blessing, you know, to just come and be present and just think something is nice and pretty.

But at the same time, it's also wonderful to have a learning moment and have a learning moment.

It's like I'm not a parent myself, but I do often laugh at my parent friends who are like, "Oh, we put broccoli in the mac and cheese."

They love it, you know?

So it's like, "Oh, let's put art on this wall "and we're gonna teach you something about, "something deeper or maybe a little heavy."

But because it's the, "Oh, isn't it pretty?"

Or, you know, "Isn't it colorful?"

Then you get into it and you start to like look into it and you wanna seek out who the artist is and what's going on.

And so I think for me, it's really important in this place where you go to the beach and you're supposed to leave your brain behind, let me give you an opportunity to understand that that also can be a relaxation.

It can be mental health, it can be education.

It just doesn't have to be pretty.

And so I think for this particular project, Bordalo, it's, you know, people are gonna walk by and say, oh, that's cool, there's another mural.

But there's gonna be a whole bunch of people that are like, wait a minute, is that a bike?

- Right.

- Wait, is that a-- - Is that a hard one?

- And can you tell us about that process?

- Yeah.

- Because the community actually helps to gather that trash.

- Yeah.

- And then it's turned into something so beautiful that, right, you don't even realize what you're looking at.

What was that process kind of like for everybody involved as they saw it transform?

- Intense.

(laughs) Just intense because usually, like, say you wanna come, Brie, and you're like, "I wanna do a mural."

You'll give me, like, "I'll give you the specs of the wall.

"You give me a design."

We go back and forth.

Then we talk about, like, "Who's gonna buy the paint?

Who's gonna get the lift?

Who's gonna do those things?"

Bordallo is much different, 'cause it's a sculpture, essentially.

So what I didn't understand, and I sort of blissfully didn't understand, is that there's engineering and there's construction.

And my partner in crime in this whole project, which is, back to your first question, was, like, why him?

And she, Carrie Turner, who's the executive director of our Asbury Park Arts Council, used to be the GM of the boardwalk structure, Madison Marquette, and she helped me figure out a way to start to create on the boardwalk.

She's a problem solver.

And so one of our, during one of our, like, sort of, like, more intense installations prior to Bordalo, I was just like, oh, she's so great.

Like, she knows her ins and outs of City Hall.

She can deal with all the stuff that I do not want to deal with.

And she does it with, like, grace, and she's Southern, so she's really cute and smiley about it and gracious always.

Anyway, I said, "Hey, if you were to pick any artist to be in this project on the boardwalk, who would you pick?"

And she's like, "Oh, I was traveling overseas and I saw this artist, Bordalo."

And I was like, "No way!

I saw him in Miami.

We should get this artist."

And she's like, "I don't even know where to start."

I'm like, "Me neither, but let's start."

And that was in 2017.

So, fast forward, it's taken that long to get here because it's a funding lift.

Hi, can you give me money to put trash on the wall?

I mean, you finesse it, but it's also like, what, what are you talking about?

If you haven't seen his work, it's also, like I said, a hard lift.

But in tandem to that, there's also engineering reports and, oh, you have to go to the city again.

There's so many, so that's why it took five years.

And it changes, I'm sure, along the way, based off of what he gets.

And I'm curious, the story about the foxes that we see.

What is that about?

So the foxes, we went back and forth with the animals.

So Bordalo's normal process, I'm gonna call it, is that he picks animals that are endangered or extinct because of human consumption.

And when I say human consumption, it's I use this bottle, I throw it out.

Nothing goes to it.

It goes into the oceans, it goes into landfills, it goes into green space, it goes into... And so I think we had gone through a few different animals and because he's in Portugal, one of the iterations was a bog turtle, which is great.

And it has a really beautiful and heartwarming story behind it.

But we kept being like, I don't know if this feels right.

So we just kept working back and forth and collaborating.

And so we told them the story about foxes.

And in 2020, unfortunately, in 2019, this giant sort of historic structure on the boardwalk had fallen victim to a fire.

But what was left was this like sort of platform on the beach.

And what had happened over COVID, since the world got quiet, foxes found its way to this sort of site where there were like divots, like because it was like the building was torn down, but then there's the platform.

And so they made dens.

A mama made a den and had litter of like six foxes.

I think they called litter.

Anyway, it became like our communities, like it was like we had this like time where we were able to watch this process.

It was so cool.

You watch them grow up.

And it was like, you'd watch with your neighbors and be like, oh my God, did you see the foxes today?

It became a talking point.

- Well, and for a coastal community, when you're used to a certain type of animal life, it's so different.

- Foxes was like, what?

- I wonder too how his work plays into, specifically a coastal community, where it surges during the summer, during tourism time, but then the trash gets left behind, right?

And it's the community who really has to rally together when talking about being sustainable and sustainable moving forward.

How did that play in here in the little bit of time that we have left?

Yeah, I mean, I think that the beauty of this project is I wanted to do something that engaged the community so everybody has some sort of stewardship to this idea, to this piece, to this artist.

We are the first piece he's done in New Jersey, so that was a big deal for us.

But you know what?

He's leaving behind something that's giving us a teaching moment.

We can now reach out to teachers and say, "Bring your kids."

We can talk about plastics.

One of our donors that helped the project, it's her passion to get rid of plastics.

And it's a very ambitious, obviously ambitious passion.

But to have her be part of this project, too, to know that she can talk to students, talk to different members of the community about, like, what it's like by the -- you know, the garbage that's left behind after the summer is terrifying, and everybody does their part.

There's lots of beach cleans up, and there's lots of -- we have a green team, and we have, you know -- we happen to have a very, very green community, so it felt like this project was for our community.

We even had, like, a -- we had a community trash day, so we had a local artist.

Kind of all worked together then.

Oh, yeah.

It just -- everybody got excited, because we prefaced -- we taught our community about who he was.

So people sat out like the whole week watching him.

That's incredible.

It was really wonderful.

I mean, so much has changed, and I want to end on this thought.

So much has changed in Asbury.

And as development continues, you know, artists came for the art, for the music.

It is shifting there.

Yes.

What's your concern and what do you want, you know, city leaders, developers, business owners, what do you want them to know about why public art is such an important part of Asbury?

For us, I think it's hugely important because, as I had mentioned, the further that we get away from arts and culture, the further that we get away from our historic identity.

I think that we've seen in the 20s how extreme wealth on the waterfront and no interest in the other parts of the town have affected us for many, many years.

And I do think that art as a connector is a really important mission for me.

I have a gallery and I would sit for 16 years and we have this big window and I would sit in front of it and I'm like, "Why don't they come in?"

So I'm like, I'm the crazy person outside, like, "Come in and see the work, come in and see the work."

So one of the inspirations behind the wooden walls is like, "Oh, you're not gonna come in and see it?

"Let me show you, I'm gonna put it in your world.

"I'm gonna come to you.

"I don't want you to feel uncomfortable, "so let me come to you."

And I think what that has shown me is that people really get into it.

And then I feel like if you're having a bad day, you can walk two blocks to see a piece of art.

You can't get to a museum, that's okay.

We can, and public art allows people to have this experience for free, which is something we're missing, you know, and we could lose.

- Especially when there's an economic divide, like there is in Asbury.

Jen, thank you so much.

- Oh, thank you so much for my time, absolutely.

- Thank you for sharing this with us.

That's gonna do it for us.

You can check out the Painting Community documentary series at mynjpbs.org.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

For all of us here at NJ Spotlight News, thanks for watching.

Have a great night.

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