Chronicling the most curious, creative, and notable projects, stories, and events of the graphic design industry on a daily basis.
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UnderConsideration is a graphic design enterprise that runs a network of blogs, publishes books, organizes live events, and designs for clients.
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Brand New / Displaying opinions, and focusing solely, on corporate and brand identity work.
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Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design / 2009, Rockport.
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Along with twenty other fellow Austinites through an AIGA event I paid a visit to the legendary Cathedral of Junk in the South side of Austin. Read on for a bit more info and some select pictures or click on the Link to see our Flickr set. Or do both.
08.25.2011
The Cathedral of Junk — nicknamed as such by his mom — is the work of Vince Hannemann, a slender man with “JUNK / KING” tattooed on his knuckles and a tan that reveals the many hours spent outside building his five- or six-room, two-story structure made out entirely of, yes, junk. Vince started 21 years ago with some hubcaps arranged on his backyard, then a mailbox attached to a post, then this, then that, and next thing he knew he was knee-deep in piles of junk.
This isn’t any kind of hobo-ish behaviour or, worse, some social commentary on consumerism. It is Vince’s art. Art that is fun. Or funny, as he describes it. The Cathedral is built in his backyard on a house he now owns but that for most of these years he rented. As he notes, he thinks he is a cool, relaxed guy but even he, if he were a landlord, wouldn’t be cool enough to let some wacky guy bring in thousands of tons of junk into his property. Vince welcomes visitors everyday, about 10,000 a year by his count. All you have to do is hit a gong on the front yard and he’ll come out and greet you.
The Cathedral is all knotted, bundled together. Copper wire, he explains, is one of his most prized items of junk. But he also has an affinity for skis, bowling bowls, CDs, and bikes. At some point he had 1,000 bikes. He lost plenty of them earlier this year when someone finally complained to the city of Austin and officials asked Vince to get his structure in code. This meant tearing down a large part of his structure, which amounted to almost 4,000 tons. Volunteers helped him with the “demolition”, which he says is actually more dangerous than the putting together. Despite the setback and the annoyance this episode brought the Cathedral quite a bit of attention — here is the Wall Street Journal’s take.
Needless to say, the Cathedral is awesome. There are Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Hulk Hogan figurines. There are license plates. There are crutches. There are laptops. Rubber ducks. Street signs. Surfboards. You name it, it’s there. It’s exactly the kind of place that makes Austin, Austin.
