Robin Frohardt, creator of the dumpster monster, will display her art at the NextNOW Fest.
Robin Frohardt is never one to shy away from pushing the boundaries of what’s considered art.
In 2006, she and a few friends founded the Apocalypse Puppet Theatre, putting on 20-minute shows with inventive forms of puppetry. Two years later, Frohardt paired up with the artist Swoon for her “Swimming Cities” project traveling through the Hudson River on a raft made from reclaimed materials. In the past few years, she has been working on her main project, “The Pigeoning,” a darkly humorous performance piece filled with puppets, music and astute messages about climate change and other prevalent issues in the 21st century.
Now, Frohardt will be bringing her latest labor of love to the University of Maryland: a dumpster full of trash.
Well, kind of.
On Sept. 10 and Sept. 11 in the Grand Pavilion of the Clarice Performing Arts Center from 6 to 10 p.m., the idiosyncratic artist will display her “Dumpster Monster.” It’s a seemingly unspectacular container of waste that, when activated with a crank, inflates into a 10-foot-tall behemoth of rubbish, complete with puppets of creepy creatures, such as cockroaches, flies and rats.
It’s a strange creation that encapsulates Frohardt’s proficiency in twisted humor, a skill she says is highly useful in “breaking down barriers” between the content of a particular piece and the audience.
“I always lean toward dark humor,” she said. “I think it’s a good way to reach people. It’s like you’re softening people up and then you can go for the kill.”
Her goal for the dumpster monster, which she describes as both “gross” and “funny” without a trace of irony, is to entertain, perplex and create sparks of childlike wonderment in the hearts of the older attendees as they witness her interactive invention rise to life.
The piece sends a poignant message about the inordinate amount of waste that humanity contributes to the earth every day.
“In a way, it’s sort of like we are creating a monster with all this garbage,” Frohardt said. “We’re throwing all this stuff away, but it’s not going anywhere — it’s just taking a life of its own.”
It’s an artwork and message that resonated with Martin Wollesen, executive director of The Clarice, who said the environmental implications of the monster make it a great fit for students at this university.
“One of the things that comes up consistently [at this university] is that students have an interest and commitment in ecology and ecological issues,” Wollesen said, “and this is an artist that is doing something that is very current to how this generation is thinking about those issues.”
Leigh Wilson Smiley, director of the theatre, dance and performance studies school, said Frohardt’s art allows students at this university to see how they can impact social justice through the use of humor and the medium of puppetry.
Smiley, who brought the unusual artist to this university to teach puppetry classes once a week this semester, said Frohardt’s success also highlights the importance of dedication and hard work in snagging your dream job.
“It’s fun to see someone have fun doing what they love — like this is her job,” Smiley said, laughing. “People can actually make a living off of this.”
Frohardt is a great fit for this year’s NextNOW Fest, Wollesen said, because many of the festival’s acts share an ability to stun with outlandish works of art.
“My hope is that when people come to the NextNOW Fest that there will be lots of moments of surprise and reflections, so she will be part of a larger environment where that is happening,” he said.
Yet Frohardt’s overarching aspiration with her work is to change the notion of what puppetry can be.
“I don’t want people to just think of the Muppets or sock puppets” when they think about puppetry, she said. “I want to expand the boundary of what a puppet show is or how puppets can be used in art and how they can interact with people.”
