“Big Head” a sculpture made from found trash by artist Lisa Bagwell on display at the Anderson Building. (Photos by Ava Velluzzi Click to enlarge.)
By Ava Velluzzi
Even as a kid, Lisa Bagwell was bothered by the amount of trash people generate.
In 2002, working at a summer camp, she began spending her free time collecting trash and using it to sculpt creations in the craft room after work. Eventually, she made her artwork public at arts and music showcases in Asbury Park.
From there, her once distant admiration of art grew into a nonstop cycle of collecting and creating. Bagwell is never not working on her next sculpture.
Red Bank area residents have a chance to see her work in an exhibition at Red Bank’s Anderson building that opened July 15. The show is the latest in a series of exhibitions being held in a portion of the space vacated by the former Sickel’s Market, while the owners forge ahead plans for the new Anderson Market inside the space.
The show includes pieces like “Big Head,” a large human head made of bottle caps and other plastic products. Another creation, titled “Pizza,” is made from items such as wine corks and pull tabs. Other works include a myriad of colorful cakes and sizable sandwiches.
The goal, she says, is to “trick and entertain” with these pieces, bringing awareness to a serious cause with a tinge of comedy. She has always been drawn toward “strange ideas” and “nonconformist absurd humor,” two aspects that propel her creative process.
Bagwell’s apartment doubles as her studio, and she stores extra materials in her mother’s garage. During her year-round cleanups at Sandy Hook, she will pocket finds or receive donations, including “cigar tips, flossers, lighters, plastic, and drug paraphernalia.” She’s “always thinking of what to make,” whether that be “birds, cats, marine life, cakes, sandwiches or human forms.”
Though art is important to her, her passion for the Earth’s well-being is what shines through.
You just might find the remote control you lost inside this human sculpture comprised of found trash and discarded electronics by Lisa Bagwell. (Photo by Ava Velluzzi)
She would rather donate pieces to environmental groups who do “the hard work of education, research and litigation” in lieu of selling to galleries. Giving to these organizations allows the art to double as a teaching point, and increase literacy on the environmental crisis. She recommends all to “live lightly on this planet” and with “little luggage.”
When she’s not making cakes out of old toothpaste tubes or human heads out of water bottle caps, she’s overseeing community gardens or building them in urban areas.
Currently the manager of Kula Urban Farm in Asbury Park, she aims to “provide habitat for the life lost from overdevelopment and contribute to localized agriculture.” Lisa also offers hands-on activities through her “trash art workshops” at places like the Teen Arts Festival at Brookdale Community College.
“Young people are incredibly creative and I see that spark burn out as we age,” Bagwell said. “I hope to keep that sense of experimentation and play alive in my work.” Fittingly, she shouts out Paul Rubens, the late actor who played Pee Wee Herman, as her muse.
Bagwell’s work is on show inside of a building that is quite the recycling project itself.
Anderson Building & Storage was once a warehouse that lay unoccupied for decades. It was expanded and redeveloped in the mid-2010s by Metrovation developer Chris Cole.
Its own recycled features include the wood used in the central interior, which was retrieved from a 1930s era building in Seattle. The building would eventually become home to places like Booskerdoo Coffee and Lambs & Wolves salon.
In Fall 2025, the building will see the addition of the new Anderson Market. It will replace the former area of Sickles Market, which abruptly closed in February 2024.
The new food hall will include a wide variety of choices. Vendors include Namkeen’s Hot Chicken, which blends Pakistani flavors with Nashville’s iconic hot chicken; Nick + Sons Bakery, offering fresh-baked bread and a variety of pastries; and Local 130 Seafood, expanding out from Asbury to satisfy Red Bank seafood lovers. Other installments will include charcuterie boards, dumplings, a juice bar, and more.
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