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Talking Trash introduces readers to a number of fascinating contemporary artists who are generally not well known, and uses the artistic artifacts as a way to discuss major issues concerning contemporary society--depletion of resources, capitalist obsolescence and accumulation, obscenity, the homeless, and undocumented migrants. It also offers an important discussion of the relation between the aesthetic and the ethical in its discussion of the ways in which 'found art' recycles trash, sometimes to make an important ethical point, but sometimes in ways that are questionable. In both cases, the function of this 'trash art' is, as the author stresses, to make us feel uncomfortable. --Jo Labanyi, Professor of Spanish Literature and Culture, NYU What does trash mean in our contemporary culture, and how does it change both its ultimate signification and our very perception of the world? Is trash exiled from our clean, everyday life and environment--as we hope to believe--or is it ubiquitous, always invading our space, only masqueraded, undercover? Even more important, what do we really mean by 'trash, ' and to what extent should we change its significance in a contemporary cultural environment? Is 'trash' more than simply debris? How does it relate to class and gender--in other words, to power dynamics? How much does it say about us? These are some of the questions this daring, provocative book by Maite Zubiaurre poses to the reader, forcing him/her into revisiting his/her own notion of 'trash.' Trash turns into a creative, critical field for a number of living artists Zubiaurre discusses--some of them less than well known even to the informed reader. If it is true that since the last global economic crisis we have entered a new era that faces material culture in unprecedented ways, Talking Trash could be a key, necessary critical reflection on innovative alternative approaches to excess and waste. --Estrella de Diego, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, author of Cristina Iglesias Thomas Struth: Constructions of the Imagination and Joaqu n Torres-Garc a: The Arcadian Modern

"""Talking Trash introduces readers to a number of fascinating contemporary artists who are generally not well known, and uses the artistic artifacts as a way to discuss major issues concerning contemporary society--depletion of resources, capitalist obsolescence and accumulation, obscenity, the homeless, and undocumented migrants. It also offers an important discussion of the relation between the aesthetic and the ethical in its discussion of the ways in which 'found art' recycles trash, sometimes to make an important ethical point, but sometimes in ways that are questionable. In both cases, the function of this 'trash art' is, as the author stresses, to make us feel uncomfortable."" --Jo Labanyi, Professor of Spanish Literature and Culture, NYU ""What does trash mean in our contemporary culture, and how does it change both its ultimate signification and our very perception of the world? Is trash exiled from our clean, everyday life and environment--as we hope to believe--or is it ubiquitous, always invading our space, only masqueraded, undercover? Even more important, what do we really mean by 'trash, ' and to what extent should we change its significance in a contemporary cultural environment? Is 'trash' more than simply debris? How does it relate to class and gender--in other words, to power dynamics? How much does it say about us? These are some of the questions this daring, provocative book by Maite Zubiaurre poses to the reader, forcing him/her into revisiting his/her own notion of 'trash.' Trash turns into a creative, critical ?eld for a number of living artists Zubiaurre discusses--some of them less than well known even to the informed reader. If it is true that since the last global economic crisis we have entered a new era that faces material culture in unprecedented ways, Talking Trash could be a key, necessary critical re?ection on innovative alternative approaches to excess and waste."" --Estrella de Diego, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, author of Cristina Iglesias Thomas Struth: Constructions of the Imagination and Joaqu�n Torres-Garc�a: The Arcadian Modern"

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Maite Zubiaurre, Professor of Spanish and German Letters at the University of California, Los Angeles, is the author of Cultures of the Erotic in Spain, 1898–1939, also published by Vanderbilt.

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