While many of us remain oblivious to the scale of our collective daily consumption and waste, a growing number of artists are finding ways to call attention to this problem.

They are hanging out in landfills and recycling centers, gathering up the trash that washes up on beaches and digging through their own garbage cans. What they find is then transformed into statements on American consumerism, deceptively beautiful images and sculptures that both entice and unsettle their viewers.

In this remarkably obsessive work, Chris Jordan arranged 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the United States every thirty seconds, to mirror French Neoimpressionist painter George Seurat's masterpiece: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jette.