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The "carts" - single-use e-cigarette devices
often found littering American beaches and hiking trails - were
the source of 150 shiny LED dots that the Sacramento-based
artist salvaged to bedazzle a pink wool jacket, known as “If
Jackie O Vaped.”
The embellished jacket is one of the highlights of a new exhibit
in Sacramento, California, featuring artworks made from
disassembled cartridges.
The show, called "Carts for the Arts," is intended in part to
call attention to the growing problem of vape litter and the
need for manufacturers to redesign single-use products into
reusable and recyclable devices.
The exhibit, sponsored by Up Kindness, a non-profit that
promotes sustainability, runs through Feb. 28 at the Atrium, a
gallery in California's capital city.
"It's a strong message: Can't we do something about the waste?"
said McCafferty, 64, one of 13 artists in the show.
With recreational marijuana legal in California, used carts in
the state often contain cannabis residue, leading California to
classified them as hazardous waste. As a result, leading
recycling businesses steer clear of them, and the carts often
end up tossed out as litter or thrown into landfills.
McCafferty, who is better known in the design world for creating
elaborate wedding gowns adorned with pearls and sequins, said
her ornamental use of LED dots was "a fashionable way to share
our desire for a more sustainable future."
In the vape cartridges, the LED display lights up to indicate
that the cart is being used or battery power is running low.
Among the other pieces in the show is a necklace made of copper
wire, glass chambers and silicone washers, all cannibalized from
vape carts. There is a silver lame fabric purse with a handle
made from plastic zip ties interwoven with glass vape chambers.
The blush-colored jacket McCafferty designed is reminiscent of
the pink Chanel suit worn by Jacqueline Kennedy when her husband
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas.
"The style is very proper; Jackie is proper," McCafferty said of
Kennedy, dubbed "Jackie O" by tabloid newspapers when she
remarried in 1968 and became Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She
died in 1994.
"She certainly wouldn’t vape! But if she did, she’d be wearing
something pink tied up with velvet ribbons with a touch of fur,"
the artist said of the jacket she designed with fuzzy pompoms on
strings of velvet.
(Reporting by Saif Tawfeeq in Sacramento; Additional reporting
and writing by Barbara Goldberg in New York)
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