Creative Recycling: Fridgehenge
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 10.21.08
So many inefficient old fridges in America that need replacing, so much empty space that could be filled with monuments. We usually suggest recycling old fridges; artist Adam Jonas Horowitz and the Primordial Soup Company had another idea: Fridgehenge, built in 2003 near Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It was built out of more than 100 fridges in the image of Stonehenge and was a popular tourist attraction. A lot of artists are working with garbage and recycling waste into art (see Stuart Haygarth's bottled water chandelier , Piet Hein Eek's scrap wood furniture, or an entire exhibition of it at the new Museum of Art and Design in New York) but never on this scale.
Image credit Creative Commons, jarrodlombardo
Unfortunately, wind and vandalism had more effect here than it did on the original. By winter in 2006 it was looking pretty shabby.
"Officials from the city of Santa Fe, where the sculpture was, said that it was never supposed to be a permanent fixture and following a number of complaints from neighbours, it was removed.
'It started out as a statement about American consumerism and waste, and then it sort of became waste itself,' Laura Banish, a city spokesperson told the Associated Press."
Bored Night via NOTCOT
Source of these pictures is the website referenced above; see more on Flickr here
More on Refrigerators from PlanetGreen
Repair or Replace (and Recycle): Your Refrigerator
Wa$ted: Close the Fridge
Triple Your Refrigerator's Lifespan
Do the Math, See if it's Time for a New Refrigerator
Check out these G-Word Videos on Recycling large objects
Video: Recycling a TV
Video: Stereo Cabinet Salvage
Video: Coffee Table Salvage
Video: Mattress Recycling
Video: Mannequin Recycling
Video: Carpet Recycling
More on Stonehenge
Stonehenge Drew Ailing Pilgrims for Healing
Dig Begins at Stonehenge Site
Stonehenge Used as Cemetery
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I wonder if I can get away with dumping all the batteries and tires stored in the warehouse next door in a fancy pattern and call it art instead of what it is...
A pile of trash in a field.
Unfortunately, Fridge Henge is gone. Fridgehenge wasn't very sturdy and had been vandalized leaving it much worse for the wear. Fridgehenge was removed in the summer of 2007 by the City of Santa Fe. Fortunately the images remain but the fridges are not.
Nick, you most certainly can! On top of that you will get Lloyd to post a story about you!
I can only hope that ultimately, Fridgehenge got recycled into more efficient fridges.
I remember as a child getting yelled at by my Mom for leaving the refrigerator door open. "Do you want to refrigerate the world?" was her cry. Well, today we do. Maybe a giant ring of refrigerators like that shown all running with their doors open will refrigerate the world and SOLVE GLOBAL WARMING!
Wow, a junkyard.
This is like the one they built with old cars.
I think that perhaps the purpose of this work has been totally misunderstood. It is a real statement on several aspects of our environmental disconcern. First it speaks to the throw away attitudes we have and obviously the level of excess we live in. It speaks also to what we are going to be leaving our decendants as a statement of what we accomplished as a society, how we managed our lives and what concern (or lack thereof)we held for future generations...although it is a shame that it would come to the point where the statement had to be made, perhaps it is fitting that the artist did make it and perhaps also it is good that it is gone. Maybe we can look inward and change our lifestyle in order to leave a living, sustainable legacy in its place.
This is very good idea to do something with dumped material. Also good base for street artist to use their spray cans.
Cheers
Nice idea! But I hope, the gas part of the fridges is made empty on the riht way. For true reycycling and the story of the first ecological fridge look here:
http://www.buendnis-zukunft.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=174 (Kryo- recycling .)