When I was in Chicago I spent that first evening with Robin and Michael. We headed down to the University of Chicago to catch the tail end of the Miniature Golf exhibit that Michael worked on as part of an artists' collaborative. The idea was to recycle and repurpose this huge amount of donated astro-turf so a number of artists each took a hole and they made a miniature golf course. And it was way beyond the coolest thing ever!

The course was set up in a building on the campus saved from demolition and now dedicated as a think tank workshop for recycling as a lifestyle. Everything is made of salvaged materials- floor from an old bowling alley, doors and furniture custom built from table tops and other doors, a big wood-burning oven from industrial fire bricks, a walled garden for organic gardening. Some of the floor was a patchwork of mill ends of recycled milk carton boards for decks. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

The course itself was a giant art Rube-Goldberg. There's Michael's illustration as the logo stenciled onto the astro-turf sign standing in the dark to show the way in. The mini-golf hole he crafted was the Cyclone. All his elements were recycled pieces too, scavenged and repurposed. The ball ends up traveling down a drainage pipe into his Fema trailer. Of course, I was fascinated by the field of tiny houses. Maybe I could recycle those.....decorate them with paint and buttons and flowers and rick rack.

All so smart, clever, artsy, brilliant, whimsical, funny, important. The students had a band, the little ones scampered through and watched over the scene, the artists talked about the fun they had, the response from the press and the public, how long they could leave it up. Sorry to say it has probably been taken down by now.

One of the holes required a putter that was 2 stories tall. You had to hang over the balcony to hit the ball with it. Another was uphill ramps into birdhouses. They will go out in the garden after the exhibit comes down. Another (striped boxes in center) was laid out so that later on the turf patches could be folded and laced together through rivets to make saddlebags for bikes. Skill...adventure...invention.