What is the Austin Giraffe?

Beauty from Bags
Towering above all other animal species, the giraffe is full of grace and beauty. Envision a life-size giraffe sculpture that is soft to the touch—a skin of recycled shopping bags. Less than 1% of the trillion plastic shopping bags used each year get recycled. Plastic bags poison our wildlife and are extremely difficult and expensive to recycle conventionally. Why not use them to
make art?

The Structure of the Sculpture
A 20-foot tall structure will be mounted on a platform and built out of steel: flat steel, rebar, wire, and metal screen. Over the steel skeleton, the Giraffe’s fur will be a short shag carpet formed from thousands of brown and white plastic shopping bags tied to a wire mesh in a giraffe-skin pattern. The plastic shopping bag exterior will add texture and realism as well as show a new and inventive application for an item that usually ends up as household waste. The brown bags will come from , Central Market, homedepot, and the white bags will come from HEB, and other stores from around Austin.

Community Energy
How many plastic shopping bags have you held in your fingers and stashed away in a closet? We propose to set up collection bins in participating grocery stores for people to recycle their plastic shopping bags. In addition, we will solicit help from art programs in Austin to tie the bags to the giraffe. By the time the sculpture is finished, its material will have traveled around the Austin community and been touched by hundreds of people.

The Green Capital
In addition to perpetuating Austin’s green reputation, supporting large-scale sculptures in Austin will elevate the artistic prestige of the city. The impressions of large art on the public speak for itself, and supporting the large sculptures of George Sabra is a perfect opening for Austin to host an artist who will push the boundaries of not just art, but large recycled art. 

 The Deadline
The sculpture will be featured in First Night Austin, a spectacular annual celebration of Austin’s art scene on New Year’s Eve. This recycled sculpture will be an excellent way to “Keep Austin Green” as well as “Keep Austin Weird”!