Bicentennial trash at Independence Mall

Joel Spivak, one of the founders of Philly's Dumpster Divers artists group, is at it again, spreading the favorite message that "trash is just a failure of the imagination." He's combining his trash-related artistic/architectural skills with one of his three thousand other passionate interests in a project on Independence Mall to create a Lincoln Memorial out of trash.

Wait, isn't Independence Day about 1776? Where's the Lincoln connection? Actually, Independence Mall is the site for the Lincoln Bicentennial Festival, celebrating the 200th anniversary of our 16th president's birth. Today in the Daily News Spivak shared some of the rationale behind the sculpture, which will be there on the Mall throughout the holiday weekend for spectators and passers-by to add to and collaborate on.

I stopped by this afternoon and found a lot of people engaged in the project, including a handful of Dumpster Divers, a lot of kids and a couple soldiers (modern-day types - meanwhile Civil War-era ones were marching by a few feet away). When I asked Spivak how things had been going so far he enthused that a lot of people were having a lot of fun contributing to the sculpture. Noting the area where people can post their Letters to Abraham Lincoln, he chuckled that the first one they got was "Dear Mr. Lincoln, I'm sorry that you are dead."

The Dumpster Divers have, in the course of the last year or so, stepped up their public profile and found new ways to promote the idea that creativity is a greater force than consumerism. If you agree, stop by Independence Mall (between 5th and 6th, Market and Arch) sometime this weekend to help build the "gleaming art sculpture" celebrating Lincoln and, in the process, our national ingenuity.