Local artist Carter Smith first came into The Resource Exchange in 2013 looking for salvaged pieces of plexiglass and various plastic remnants. Luckily, we save those kinds of materials from going into landfill when we can! Plexi of all sizes can comes from the sets of film and theater. Some pieces are large, full sheets, and undamaged or hardly used because production companies order excess for their projects, and then have no need for them once the curtain closes, or the cameras stop rolling (good thing we’re here to prevent those from going straight to landfill!) But we also have a variety of smaller pieces of plastics.

Some are thin colored films, some some are tinted, painted, or distressed depending on the original project for which it was used.

Carter was looking for these smaller transparent pieces for a giant project. A giant and really cool project. A giant kaleidoscope. He’s been working on it over the past few years, and just sent us some images of the work in progress…and they’re awesome. All of the changing colors are produced by passing light through a collection of colored plastics (some reclaimed from The Resource Exchange!) Viewers can sit inside the triangular structure and watch the changing shapes and colors reflecting on all sides of the vessel. Carter is hoping to continue the project and keep making it larger and more detailed. We hope so too! Check out this video clip of the installation in action…