| Catherine Y. Hsieh: How long have you been doing Chinatown Garbage Tour? Nate Hill: The tour has been going on since July of last year. CH: What made you decide to do such a project? NH: It was to teach people about my art and how they could do it themselves. I was trying to inspire people to also make art like mine, to build taxidermy from garbage. CH: How is the turnout every time you organize an event? NH: Attendance ranges quite a bit. Sometimes there’s two people, sometimes there’s twenty, so it’s hard to say. It varies. CH: Does it depend on the weather? NH: No. It just depends on the hype and the buzz around the event. |
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Catherine Y. Hsieh talks to Nate Hill, the founder of Chinatown Garbage Tour.
Catherine Y. Hsieh: How long have you been doing Chinatown Garbage Tour?
Nate Hill: The tour has been going on since July of last year.
CH: What made you decide to do such a project?
NH: It was to teach people about my art and how they could do it themselves. I was trying to inspire people to also make art like mine, to build taxidermy from garbage.
CH: How is the turnout every time you organize an event?
NH: Attendance ranges quite a bit. Sometimes there’s two people, sometimes there’s twenty, so it’s hard to say. It varies.
CH: Does it depend on the weather?
NH: No. It just depends on the hype and the buzz around the event. The most number of people that ever showed up for a tour was around 30, and that was in the rain. There was just a lot of buzz around me at the time.
CH: Take the tour on May 22 for example. How many people showed up?
NH: I counted around 15. It was a pretty good turnout.
CH: How do people react when they rummage through garbage in the alleys?
NH: How do you think they would react? You could probably write the answer to this question. There’s a range of reactions, but most people are amused, I would say, by the whole idea of digging through the garbage. Last time there were three ladies there who were nurses. They were all from New Jersey and all in their forties. They had seen a lot of blood before and were a lot of fun. They were unusual to the tour because most people who come are young. It’s usually a totally different demographic.
CH: Taxidermy is the focus of this project. Where do you make the animals you find into taxidermy?
NH: That happens in my apartment. I don’t actually have a studio.
CH: What was the worst experience you’ve had since you started the tour?
NH: One time a guy came who was really into dead animals. He was digging through the garbage a little too passionately. That was weird. But everything is usually pretty cool.
CH: What was the best experience you’ve had?
NH: I just really enjoy meeting people, especially going out afterward for drinks. It’s fun to hang out every time.
CH: How often does the tour happen?
NH: It happens once a month.
CH: Do you keep your taxidermy?
NH: Yes, I do.
CH: On your Web site it mentions that the people who attend these events could throw away their taxidermy after they’re done. Is that true?
NH: I wrote that tongue in cheek. One of the things I started along with the tour is this event where we try to put things together from what we find. It’s like a crafts table. I joke that since it came from the garbage, you can put it back in the garbage.
CH: What was the best piece you’ve made so far?
NH: That would be the life-size human being. I called it the A.D.A.M. Project. It stands for A Dead Animal Man. It had 13 animals in it.
CH: Where do you foresee Chinatown Garbage Tour going from here?
NH: I’m actually surprised it’s survived so long. Honestly, I’ve been trying to sabotage it recently because I don’t want to beat a dead horse. You know how there are those sports figures who stay in their sports too long and should retire? I don’t want to be one of those guys. I jokingly say that this month the special attraction for the tour is that we’re going to a massage parlor afterward, and the price for the tour is also the price of the massage.
CH: Why don’t you just cancel it?
NH: Because it’s fun. I’d rather just have it destroy itself. I can’t just say no to the tour. I don’t want to cancel it because I want people to come, but I either want a lot of people or no tour.
CH: Let’s say if nobody shows up. Would you be disappointed?
NH: Yes, I would.
CH: Any upcoming exhibitions or projects?
NH: I’m working on the female counterpart to the A.D.A.M. Project, a life-size female figure called the E.V.E. Project, and I just finished the head.
CH: What is it made of?
NH: The head of Eve is made of a dog head and a guinea hen head, and there’s an octopus in there as well. The nose is a dog nose. The eyes and hair are from a fish.
The last Chinatown Garbage Tour took place on June 26, 2008.
