What can discarded straws, coke bottles, clothes, and plastic bags be used for? Ingenious artists have used them to replicate treasures displayed at the museum.

On March 30, the three-month-long Low Carbon Art Research and Experience Exhibition kicked off at the China Three Gorges Museum of Chongqing.

56 artworks on carbon neutrality

According to the curator Ma Yuxia, the exhibition combines low-carbon environmental protection and artistic creativity. It integrates history, culture, and education through reproduction, art, and immersive experience, delivering a sense of artistic beauty to visitors while promoting ecological conservation and environmental protection.

The curator introduced the exhibits to the audience. (Photo provided to iChongqing)

Not only the exhibition hall uses natural light, but also the exhibits are made of recycled objects such as discarded straws, coke bottles, clothes, and plastic bags. In addition, the showcases are made of recyclable cardboard and waste exhibition equipment and can be reused, which reflects the concept of low-carbon environmental protection.

The exhibit is made of discarded materials. (Photo provided to iChongqing)

Including five parts and 56 low-carbon artworks, the exhibition can take visitors on an exciting art journey characterized by carbon neutrality.

"national treasures" made of waste

The most attractive items must be the "national treasures" made of waste in the exhibition hall.

Ma Yuxia said that the inspiration for the exhibit "Huniu Chunyu with blue and white patterns" comes from one of the most-treasured pieces collected by the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum "Huniu Chunyu" (an ancient percussion instrument in the Period of Warring States). The artwork, delicately made of recycled foamed plastic and decorated with more than 50kg of blue and white porcelain broken pieces, is almost the same size as the original piece. It was created to demonstrate to the world that waste can be made into beautiful things.

"Huniu Chunyu with blue and white patterns" was created to demonstrate to the world that waste can be made into beautiful things. (Photo provided to iChongqing)

Also, by carving recycled foamed plastic and using the pulp of waste papers for external shaping, the artists replicated another most-treasured piece collected by the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum, Bird shaped Utensil Pottery. With a "nest" made of dead twigs that they picked up on mountains and fields, the work implies that the millennia-old culture is coming back to the home where it originates and thrives from generation to generation in the modern context of low-carbon development and environmental protection, conveying the ecological conservation concept that "everything can be a medium of low-carbon development, ecological conservation, and recycling."

Van Gogh at Our Houses is the best work of the "cabinet family" series. It renders waste something classic by reusing a lot of waste movie props, film rolls, diamond plates, and offcuts from Chinese-style furniture.