Bordalo II: Turning Trash Into Stunning Animal Art Pieces

One Portuguese artist crafts trash into treasures.

Bordalo II uses garbage and discarded items to build amazing 3-D murals, sculptures, and installations. Bordalo Segundo's art definitely redefines the public's notions of street art.

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He composts the garbage into Big Trash Animal mural-sculptures. They're painted and installed throughout Lisbon, Portugal, Aruba, Estonia and many other cities from different countries as well. Despite the grand size of his work, he is also involved in smaller projects and exhibitions.

His works mix nature with the unnatural. Composing his pieces is a work in itself. Bordalo II hunts for the perfect piece of trash in abandoned houses, junkyards and factories to collect his material.

He uses his skills to remind people that "One man's trash is another man's treasure." He hopes to remind people of how much waste they emit daily, and even encourage them to reuse or reduce consumption in order to save our planet.

According to Bordalo II, "The idea is to depict nature itself, in this case, animals, out of materials that are responsible for their destruction. Sometimes people don’t recognize that their simple routines are too much, we are using too many resources too fast and turning them into trash, waste, and pollution.”

The process begins with a sketch and a relatively filthy hut for materials. After building a skeleton for the sculpture, he paints both the metal and the backgrounds in unique and exciting colors.

Bordalo II was born in Lisbon, 1987. He says, "I belong to a generation that is extremely consumerist, materialist and greedy. With the production of things at its highest, the production of "waste" and unused objects is also at its highest.

He says that he creates, recreates, assembles and develops ideas with end-of-life material and tries to relate it to sustainability, ecological and social awareness.

Bordalo II also remarks that his artistic inspiration comes from Vik Muniz, Pawel Kuczynski, Dran, Banksy, Farewell, Spy, Mais Menos, and others.

He is apparently interested in strong messages translated in black humor, jokes, puns, and other efficient ways that will make people stop and think.

Want to see more of Bordalo II's work? Check out his Instagram and Facebook for the latest installations.