Kendall Pace
Large-scale portraits of the American West from thousands of recycled aluminum cans. Originals and commissions.
Austin, Texas — Western Colorado
Medium and Process
Every piece begins as trash. Aluminum cans — pulled from recycling bins, gathered from neighbors, picked up after gameday where staff has sorted into bins from a stadium full of fans. What most people flatten and forget, Kendall Pace washes, cuts, sorts by color, and rebuilds — fragment by fragment — into the icons of the American West.
Step 1 — Sourcing
It starts with bins, bags or cans solo on the ground. Cans come from all over: home recycling, from friends and neighbors, from the gym, from the skate park, and from community partners who keep Kendalll supplied by the hundreds. Every piece is quite literally, built by what a collective community throws away.
Step 2 — Cutting
Every can first has the top and the bottom cut off. Then the can is put inot the dishwasher for a soapy rinse (after finding out that washing by hand might not get the can fully clean which can lead to sugar ants). There, so far, is not machine for this - just gloves, a box cutter and scissors (and a dishwasher). A single portrait begins as hors of sourcing and cutting.
Step 3 — Color Sorting
After the rinse, every can is sorted by color and hue and cut into pieces. Every color you see is that of a can. Some cans yield more color than others. Every brand is unique. Coca-Cola red, Bud Light blue, the pale of Waterloo, the almost-yellow of Coor Banquet, or the orange of Fanta. Kendall's studio is organized like a painter's palette, except the pigment is packaging. The hunt for a shade (e.g. navy or dark green) can take a while.
Step 4 — Sketching an Outline
Each piece begins with a rough sketch in pencil on a gessoed board. No color at this point. Kendall starts with a general color story and adjusts as the image unfolds.
Step 5 — Layering
The portrait is built in layers, assembled rather than applied as in paint. Thousands of fragments, placed one at a time, until the image holds. Each piece is applied with very hot glue and then immediately wiped of the excess. Kendall likes to work without gloves to feel the surface.
Step 6 — The Reveal
Stand close, and you see the fragments — the logos, the 'recycle me,' the rough edges. Step back and the bison or the virgen Mary appears. The piece is never one thing. It is both at once: a romantic or bold image and also an honest record of what we consume and discard.
