AIRSPACE: Understanding the landfill crisis


A series created as Artist in Residence at the City of Ottawa’s waste department.

The AIRG program is designed to incorporate artists into government environments. Artists work with a specific department for a year to incite change and spark new ideas. It’s about finding right-brain solutions to challenges that are typically managed by left-brained teams.

Read more about the Residency

Anchor piece

Portrait of a Department
Jordan Danger
8’x2’x2’

Not for sale—collection of the City of Ottawa Waste Services Department


Materials: Acrylic tube holding salvaged paper, clothing, and materials from the SWS department.

This piece is the centerpiece of the Airspace series. It’s a portrait of the Solid Waste Services department, built using the same method they use to manage landfill space: compression and vertical stacking.

Every material in the sculpture was discarded by the department itself, making it a literal and symbolic representation of the organization. Visually, it resembles a core sample — layered, dense, and stratified — which also works metaphorically, since both core samples and portraits capture a moment in time.

Learn more.

The Airspace Collection