Exuberantly spray-painted using stencils and ingeniously accessorized with tyres as chain straps and rocks as beads, the crumbling concrete boulders have been revamped into designer handbags, from Gucci, Chanel and Prada to Givenchy, Louis Vuitton and Alexander McQueen, becoming the very antithesis of their derelict nature. It is this bewildering dissonance that drives home Thrashbird’s message, of how absurdly we systematically assign value in a society where consumption of possessions is a reflection of our social standing.

The transformation of the oversized, towering plinths into symbols of craftsmanship, luxury and status also alludes to the artist’s own personal struggle with ego and grandiosity, while the forsaken site also points out the destructive consequences that the overproduction of ephemeral goods has on our planet.

On another level, the project can also be said to be an honest, or at least symbolic, attempt to reclaim the wastelands that our civilization’s meteoric expansion has left behind in its accelerated consumption of resources. Ironic in subtext as they may be, Thrashbird’s spray-painted artworks are beautiful in appearance, their vivid colours and playful patterns bestowing upon the run-down site an unexpected charm that hints that no place is beyond rescue while at the same time nostalgically conjuring the site’s imaginary past. 

Part cautionary tale, part beautification project, whatever message one derives from it, “Thrashbird's Valley of Secret Values" is a mesmerizing feat of ingenuity which, as faith would have it, is currently being torn down. Scheduled to be completed in June 2018, the demolition is part of the local council’s efforts to sell the site to a new industrial entity, but could very well be an allegory about the futility of the pursuit of status or a forewarning that no good deed goes unpunished. 

Thrashbird is represented by JM Art Management.