Ann Wizer: where it all began

XSProject is the brainchild of visual artist and environmental activist Ann Wizer, who conceived of this initiative in the mid-90s while living in the Philippines. As an artist’s expression against the ongoing ecological abuse caused by rampant consumerism and its subsequent nonrenewable waste, Wizer started utilizing trash as her primary material in designing costumes and installations. The first tote bags she produced from nonrecyclable plastic were accessories to the trash costumes used in her performances.

Seeking to involve poor communities of trash pickers in an out-of-studio “intervention,” Wizer created XSProject in 2002 in Jakarta, determined to focus on the development of sustainable solutions to the problem of unmanaged consumer waste.

Wizer’s quirky use of unlikely materials, including drinking straws and toothpaste tubes, demonstrates an inventive and creative way to reduce the increasing mountains of trash found throughout Southeast Asia. Each one of XSProject’s handmade, one–of-a-kind products is made from consumer waste.

The non-profit XSProject Foundation was established in 2004 with the aim of raising environmental awareness and directly helping the trash picker communities by providing assistance for daily needs, scholarships and health protection, ultimately highlighting the huge number of invisible populations living in poverty – the very people who live with our trash.

Wizer continues to develop new programs for the XSProject Foundation and looks for ways to use more types of consumer waste in XSProject product designs. In her continuing art practice, she addresses the larger political issues surrounding environmental degradation and poverty by using trash and documentation.