When you’re walking through the city, you hardly look at the broken car bumpers or the piles of plastic siding that line the roads. But Portuguese artist Artur Bordalo, also known as Bordalo II, takes these urban waste objects and creates massive three-dimensional animals from them.

These animals range from owls to raccoons. Most of them are several stories tall and take up entire walls. From afar, the animals look impressive with their bright colors. But up close, they break down into their individual parts, such as a bicycle seat or a garden hose.

The Problem is the Material

Bordalo’s art pieces are called “Big Trash Animals.” He uses various types of plastics and petroleum products that poison the ecosystems where these animals live. He’s essentially creating a connection between the audience and the problems that the environment faces due to human consumption.

He finds most of these materials at the local waste management facilities or directly from the streets where the mural is being built. Therefore, the pieces of trash used in his art are the remnants of the city’s old appliances and cars.

Building With Debris

Creating these artworks requires Bordalo to be both a construction worker and a welder. He builds the animals from individual debris pieces and then paints them with spray paint. He often leaves the other parts of the debris unpainted so the audience can remember the objects they used to be.

There’s no easy way for him to bolt a tractor tire to a brick wall using high-tech equipment. But Bordalo’s process for creating his art fits into the world of creation and the importance of utilizing the resources that others have discarded around the world.