Tag Archives: upcycled cassette tapes

Have you ever wondered whatever happened to all of those old tapes people used to have??  Well, it seems like cute little wallets aren’t the only things that really creative people are making out of them!  Check out the work of Brian Dettmer.  It’s absolutely amazing what he’s managed to make from these items that most people would consider a useless relic of the past.  Except for my husband that is.  For whatever reason, he loves old tapes and insists on playing them all the time!

These intricate sculptures are made without any glue or tape to bind them together.  The pieces are made up only of the casette tape case and tape itself in some cases.  The pieces are a metaphor for a dying breed of analog media in an ever increasing digital era.  The thought struck him one day as he saw a dead bird lying on the road.  He pondered the idea that what used to be alive was now irretrivably lost with all that remains was it’s physical, solid form.  The metaphor became a reality in 2005 when he began sculpting the bones of the dead from the dead form of analog.

The skull of the ram shown above is made of altered cassette tapes melted together.  Nothing but the cassette tapes themselves were used in these pieces.  The artist has only revealed that he molds the pieces with wet hands and melted tapes.  The exact process of the art form itself remains a mystery.  I can only begin to imagine the time and energy it has taken to make some of his pieces.

This is especially true for his most intricate sculpture to date.  The skeleton is made up of over 180 individual cassettes.  It is amazingly true to form and instantly recognizable as the human skeletal system.  Mr. Dettmer has made a series of skulls of different themes.  There are 12 in the series with the one shown here being a 80′s metal theme.  Notice that the tape around the skull’s mouth is Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil.  I too was once called a metal head!  It’s good to see artist’s with a sense of humor as well as the creativity that is required to repurpose everyday items into extraordinary art.  This work is an example of upcycling at it’s finest!

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