Recycling Words is an interactive art installation that assembles everyday objects and words to create a playful river narrative. Drawing reference to the physical and vocal exchanges that historically flocked the Red and Assiniboine rivers on canoe, Recycling Words offers a new cultural and social means of gathering along the Red River Mutual Rivertrail. 

The installation is composed of fifty recycled chairs and fifty pairs of recycled skis that are fastened together using metal connectors. Each unit is painted a vibrant colour and stenciled with a unique word along its back. Diffused across the length of the Rivertrail, Recycling Words creates a visual explosion and recognizable marker for the various access points of the Assiniboine and Red rivers.

The chair-ski combo invites the user to push, pull, sit or glide in tandem or solo, while also setting into motion other chair activities such as musical chairs, or learning how to skate. The fifty words assigned to each chair are mindfully selected in collaboration with a local art historian to enable users to physically construct improvised phrases or reconstruct narratives or memories of Winnipeg based on the infamous fridge magnet game.

Using words and materials of the place, Recycling Words offers a sustainable art installation that allows users to reconstruct old stories and make new memories along Winnipeg’s Rivertrail this winter.