One of my pet peeves about living in the city is the prevalence of abandoned shopping carts that find their way onto my lawn. Shopping carts are not decorative lawn ornaments. Nowadays, newer grocery stores have installed cart retaining systems, which deter theft by locking the wheels once they wander too far from the parking lot. Even so, that does little for the fleet of stolen carts that are presently in circulation. That’s all to say, until today we had never seen anyone use shopping carts as a part of their artistic endeavours. Enter Ramon Coronado, who has created a set of red plastic furniture, called Mercado Negro. Mercado Negro is a Spanish word for Black Market.
These pieces are unmistakable, and there’s no doubt that he’s used shopping carts to create his set, which includes a table, chair, lamp and swing. Ramon provides additional insight as to how this idea came to be, and what the project means to him.
Shopping carts exist everywhere and anywhere throughout the city of LA and include themselves as part of LA’s landscape. A shopping cart says a lot about a city. Seeing one on every block adds attention to the poverty and that there is no control of private property.
I took it upon myself to take a shopping cart and make a statement with it. I reclaimed LA’s iconic shopping cart and created furniture for kids to enjoy in these urban Los Angeles areas. The project is a criticism of the scarcity of recreational functions for kids growing up in a dense city like Los Angeles.
The blog owner requires users to be logged in to be able to vote for this post.
Alternatively, if you do not have an account yet you can create one here.
Powered by Vote It Up
