enormous 'trash animals' inhabit an abandoned motel in las vegas

on the site of an abandoned motel in downtown las vegas, bordalo II has debuted his most ambitious installation to date — ‘wild wild waste’. the portuguese activist and ecologic artist is widely known for his ‘trash animal’ installations made from materials like plastics found in wastelands, dumpsters, abandoned factories, scrap yards and recycling centers. here, he has unearthed a 10,000 square feet zoo parody, dotted with oversized sculptural installations of wild animals. bordalo II seeks to provoke viewers to consider the nature of humanity, waste production and the commodification of animal habitats.

bordalo II’s ‘wild wild waste’ is ​produced by global creative house justkids, and powered by zappos. ‘bordalo is inspired by the rejected, the broken, the wasted, somehow our everyday,’ explains justkids curator, charlotte dutoit. ‘with the trash we refuse to be responsible for he creates a fantastic installation that is playful and, furthermore that question our relation to waste and our responsibility’.

installations include a massive whale tangled up in a fishing net, a lion confined in a truck, a flock of penguins sitting on plastic cubes, and a panda family made from car parts. ‘we were so humbled to have the opportunity to help host the art of bordalo at life is beautiful this past weekend,’ said ​tyler williams, fungineer at zappos.com. ‘the entire installation’s emotional nature gave us all a little lesson in doing more with less in our work and in our environment.’