Museums are filled with trash. I don’t mean that as an insult. At some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, visitors pay good money to look at display cases filled with pottery shards, damaged tools, and even hardened chunks of feces. During their era, these items were unremarkable and worthless. But because they’ve survived millennia, they’re now impressive and valuable rarities.
Oakland’s Trash Falcons don’t believe centuries must pass in order for garbage to become worthy of appreciation. The group’s new exhibition, Trash Falcons Trash Museum of Trash (the extra “Trash” is not a typo), makes the case that even fresh rubbish deserves its place in the gallery. Indeed, I found myself just as enthralled by this collection of debris plucked from Lake Merritt and the surrounding area as I had been by marquee shows at other local museums recently. Pieces like “Ill-Fated Love Photo 2,” which is accompanied by the caption “You can imagine things REALLY didn’t work out when the marriage photo is burned and THEN tossed into Lake Merritt” is an example of the kind of art that will spend some serious time swirling around my consciousness (unlike, say, the easily digestible meme shows and oversize screensaver “experiences” that seem to be getting the most attention these days). The Trash Museum is presented with a dose of tongue-in-cheek humor, but chief curator Rachel Beth Egenhoefer was serious when she explained to me that the exhibition is meant to “document our moment in time.”
Started in 2020 by Richard Shirk and Dana Berry, the Trash Falcons are a group of volunteers ranging from age seven to “almost 80” who spend their Sunday mornings removing litter from Lake Merritt and the Adams Point neighborhood. Many of them, like “Night Heron Aaron,” have adopted bird-themed monikers. There are several community-led organizations, like Urban Compassion Project, that are focussed on cleaning up Oakland’s infamously polluted streets, but the Trash Falcons are undoubtedly the most whimsical. By turning clean-up sessions into treasure hunts for potential museum items, and giving homemade trash-grabbing tools names like “The Witch’s Finger,” they’ve turned what otherwise might be an unpleasant chore into a playful romp. They even organized a “trash regatta” last year that involved kayaks, paddleboats, and grappling hooks. When they don’t have access to boats, Falcons will don fishing waders and trudge into the lake at low tide to retrieve submerged toys, ankle monitors, mattresses, false teeth, and, on one lucky occasion, “Michael Jackson’s skateboard.”
Walking through the Trash Falcons Trash Museum of Trash, currently on view at Lake Merritt’s Junior Center for Art and Science through March 6, doesn’t feel like strolling through a collection of random objects. Thanks to the “questionably” accurate display text, it’s more like being welcomed into the Falcons’ expansive world of inside jokes and pseudo-mythology. The caption for an old RC Cola bottle “found buried deep in the mud” speculates that “it was thrown from the deck of Samuel Merritt’s Lake Merritt Party Yacht.” A doll has been given an elaborate backstory involving the Gold Rush. A pair of AirPods are accompanied by a theory that the owner threw them into the water out of frustration stemming from too many incoming robo-calls.
Once you’re immersed in this trash-strewn fantasy world, it’s easy to begin dreaming up your own origin stories. Upon seeing a pair of blue stunna shades, I imagined the massive sunglasses flying off Mac Dre’s head while he was ghostriding the whip down Lakeshore Ave during the hyphy era. Did that really happen? Probably not, but it could have.
Alongside the Museum of Trash, the Junior Center of Art and Science curated an exhibition of Trash Falcons art titled “What We Sow” in the adjacent room. This gallery features birds made out of garbage and scavenged feathers; a replica of the Louvre’s stolen jewel necklace constructed from bottle caps and foil; and a nod to George R.R. Martin’s iconic Iron Throne. Instead of being decorated with the swords of vanquished enemies, like the king’s chair on “Game of Thrones,” The Trash Throne features a colorful array of garbage grabbers.
While unique, the hodgepodge creations on display at “What We Sow” are deeply rooted in Bay Area “outsider” art traditions. Ephemeral “found object” sculptures have been popping up at Albany Bulb, Burning Man, and Recology’s “Art at the Dump” shows for decades. In a brilliant trilogy of articles about the history of Emeryville’s dearly departed mudflat sculptures, perhaps the most iconic local examples of this “trash art” style, Joey Enos provided context for these large scale pieces, which began emerging from shoreline wastelands in the early 1960s:
“A defining part of West Coast art was the art of assemblage; creating art from debris. This was not a new idea. Making art from junk is a folk art tradition as old as time. Bohemians of the day were searching for authenticity through ‘folk’ to establish their voice from the America they separated themselves from. The soul of these works gave the artist freedom of material and its urgency as a countercultural path in modern art. These young artists had to express themselves, no matter skill or financial situation, junk or beauty, by any means necessary.”
Unlike the Emeryville mudflat sculptures, which sunk into the muck, washed out to sea, or were sent to the landfill, the Trash Falcons artworks are not bound for obliteration. Egenhoefer and her fellow “trashologists” plan to relocate the collection to a storage facility until another venue is interested in hosting Trash Falcons Trash Museum of Trash. Where could it end up next? Well, I heard the Louvre has some empty space to fill…
East Bay Yesterday News, Notes & Events
The USS Hornet has been docked at the former site of Alameda Naval Air Station since the 1990s, but now the “haunted” aircraft carrier is considering a move across the Bay. Listen to my latest podcast to hear all about the history of this floating museum and why they might move to SF.
Spring boat tours: Tickets are now available for the Richmond route on March 8 and the Oakland tours on April 17 and May 15. Here’s the FAQ about what to expect. (Gray whales have already started arriving in the Bay this season, maybe we’ll get lucky and catch a glimpse!)
Save the Date 1: The opening party for the photography exhibition that I’m curating with East Bay Photo Collective will be happening on April 3 in Oakland’s Chinatown. More details coming soon, but we just finished selecting the images for this show and I guarantee it’s gonna be excellent.
Save the Date 2: After I published an article about the sad condition of the Dunsmuir Hellman Estate, many people reached out to me asking for more information and wondering if there’s any way to help prevent its deterioration. On April 29 at the main branch of the Oakland Public Library, I’ll be co-hosting an event on this topic with several esteemed guests. We’ll be discussing the history of the property, showing rare photos, and hopefully bringing together a group of folks who might be able to reverse the Estate’s downward trajectory.
Following the success of last year’s local history diorama competition, my friends at the Oakland History Center have decided to do it again this year. Check out their site for details (including new categories) and start studying up for the trivia contest, which I’ll be co-hosting at the diorama award ceremony, happening on October 3.
Huge thanks to everyone who attended my sold out “Bay Aerial” event at La Peña Cultural Center last weekend! If you took any photos, please send them my way (eastbayyesterday [at] gmail) – I always forget to take pics at my own events. Also: Should I do this presentation one more time? A few people DM’d me about not being able to get tickets, so I’m trying to gauge interest.
More Local History News
A few local history-related articles, programs, and tidbits I’ve appreciated recently…
Laura X got spousal rape banned in California. At 85, she scrapes by in a Berkeley hotel room [Berkeleyside]
Great-granddaughter of Piedmont’s first Black residents, who were forced out by a ‘terror campaign,’ sues city [The Oaklandside]
Historic Bay Area shipyard hosts celebration as two of World War II’s legendary “Rosies” turn 100 [Mercury News]
Coffee and Hernias, Cotton and Death: The Bay Area Waterfront Writers and Artists, 1977–1994 [Long-Haul]
“End of an era”: Bakery housed in historic Black Panthers building abruptly closes its doors [KTVU]
Punkhouse Oakland [The IG account morphed into a podcast!]
Unpaid Debts [Oakland Review of Books]
Remember when James Cameron blew up a building in Fremont? [via Reddit]
Upcoming Exhibits & Events (Not Mine)
Feb. 17 - “Epicenter: The Struggle for Black Studies in the Bay Area” film screening
Feb. 25 - “Huey P. Newton’s Family - Roots of A Revolutionary Suicide” book discussion with Lise Perlman and Melvin Newton
Feb. 27 - Black History Fireside Chat
Mar. 5 - “Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area” launch party with Rae Alexanda and Adrienne Simms
Mar. 14 - Oakland Urban Paths’ Cleveland Heights and Borax Smith walking tour
Mar. 14 - “Sweet Success: How Industry, Immigrants, and Working Women Shaped a Town” book discussion with Barbara Pagni Denton
Mar. 21 - Opening Reception and Curator Talk: “The Black Panther Party in Berkeley”
Mar. 22 - “The Big Reveal” Pardee Home Museum Tour
Apr. 11 - Cofounders Musical presents All People Powered Concert
Finally…
People have been sending me a lot of cool vintage photos lately, so I wanted to share one of my favorites. This one shows the 1911 view of Broadway looking north from 11th Street. Thanks to Tim Sanchez for retouching the glass negative and giving me permission to post this beauty…
Thanks for reading – and special shoutout to Jim McSilver from Oakland Originals for sending me the story tip about Trash Falcons!
Liam O’Donoghue
Thank you Liam! Your column this week is very stimulating. I am lacing up my best walking shoes to attend these events! Trash Art is first on my list!
- Bobbi Feyerabend @ Camron-Stanford House
…what a rad finding…trash folks rule, and excited to see the display…thanks also for linking the mudflats article, what a great read…