Lethbridge artist Arianna Richardson has discovered a lot holding her Garbage Party over the past couple weeks.
 She has been spending a couple of hours each day, dressed in a shiny gold lamé jumpsuit from 2-4 p.m. picking up garbage in Galt Gardens (Sept. 15-21) and this week in Indian battle Park (Sept 22-28), chronicling the different types of garbage and putting it in a series of colourful garbage bins. She takes down the exhibit on Friday.

“ I’ve been asking people what they think think of  the city’s waste management systems and where they think it can be improved. I’ll probably give this data to the City. So far it’s been  an average of five out of 10,” she said.
“ It’s interesting collecting data when I have no idea how to do it. It’s just my hobby,” she said, adding that fits perfectly with her sobriquet of the Hobbyist.

“It’s been a great way to spend two hours a day,” she said adding it has been interesting what she has found.

“In Galt Gardens, I found 3,000 cigarette butts, which is gross. In Indian Battle Park, it’s mostly been the plastic wrappings from the straws in juice boxes. So it’s been interesting how garbage shows how people are using these spaces, though it might not be the ways I’d be compelled to use them,” she observed, adding she has also found  fake fingernails and empties and a few other objects she can't quite identify.

It has been a challenge doing the project in the inclement weather over the past few week.
“The weather was quite terrible.  I wasn’t expecting that in September, but it was all right,” she said.

 She noted interacting with audiences was initially the idea behind the project.

“ Though there hasn’t been as much interaction as I expected, but that’s Lethbridge,” she said.

“In the Galt Gardens, it seems to be mostly related to the party, in the park it‘s more about enjoying the scenery,” she observed.

“It‘s very telling about what uses people have for the spaces,” she said.

“ I think it’s been very good,” she said, noting she has divided her bins into nine different categories including cigarette butts, paper, metal, to go containers, eating implements and straws and bottle caps.
“And there’s shiny packaging material, which I take home, clean and use in my other projects,” she said.

“ I think I’ll probably do this again next summer in different parks,” she said.

Friday is the last day to catch Garbage Party in Indian Battle park by the  big picnic shelter. Richardson is there from 2-4 p.m. each day.