Alex Queral gives new meaning to the phrase “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” With modern technology and the growing popularity of Internet-accessible smartphones, bulky phonebooks are becoming increasingly obsolete. Most of the Yellow Pages that arrive on doorsteps end up a) thrown in the recycling bin or b) presented as a curbside gift to the neighborhood garbage man. This might seem wasteful, but what else can be done with them?
Being the resourceful artist that he is, Queral has found a creative ‘plan c;’ he collects phonebooks and uses them to create celebratory pieces of art. Queral takes an old trashcan-worthy phonebook and, with the use of a pen, exacto knife, and razor blade, transforms it into an intriguing work of art. The finished product reveals faces of some of the most notorious public figures sculpted into a phonebook. Queral has created his phonebook sculptures of everyone from Bob Dylan to Clint Eastwood and President Barack Obama.
In an exclusive interview with ChinaShop, Queral explains his obsession with hoarding phonebooks, his process for choosing his subjects to sculpture, and how he single-handedly may be elevating the market value of the paper phonebook.
