'Call yourself an artist, you can be whatever you want to be'

EOIN BUTLERtalks to Shrine, Californian artist and trash sculptor

WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION?I'm a painter. I do trash sculptures. I'm also a circus clown. But I call myself an artist as a catch-all. It's a rule, well established by people who came long before me, that if you call yourself an artist, that means you can be whatever you want to be. So I try to take advantage of that.

WHERE DID THE IDEA OF MAKING ART FROM DISCARDED OBJECTS COME FROM?It started one day when I was walking on the beach in Los Angeles and I noticed a lot of plastic milk and juice container lids lying around. They were all different colours and really quite beautiful. So I collected a bag full of them and made a frame for one of my paintings with them. That was a long time ago now. But it's only recently that people have begun to take an interest.

COULD YOU DESCRIBE SOME OF THE BIGGER PIECES YOU'VE CREATED?Probably the biggest thing I've ever done was The Templeat Burning Man, which was three stories high. People were encouraged to come inside and leave something behind that was dear to their heart, whether it was a message to someone who had passed away or whatever. I also did the Tree Shrineat Electric Picnic last year. Sure, my nickname is Shrine and I like to think of the structures I build as sacred spaces – but there's no religion, no belief system connected to them.

ARE YOU MOTIVATED BY A DESIRE TO RECYCLE OR DO YOU WORK THIS WAY PURELY BECAUSE YOU LIKE THESE MATERIALS?Well, obviously there's a dialogue going on right now about the need to reuse things, rather than throwing them out. We can't keep consuming our natural resources they way we have been doing. But being honest, that's not why I do what I do. I don't do this because it's the right thing to do. I do it because I enjoy working with these materials.

BY THE SOUNDS OF IT, YOU ENJOY COLLECTING THEM TOO.I do. Maybe it dates back to my grandmother telling me stories about pirates searching for treasure, but I just love to hunt for things. Some people love to shop, but I get the same thrill out of going through people's trash, my own trash, picking up stuff that's been left on the kerb. Y'know, at this point, I'm so far gone with the idea of collecting trash that it's just second nature to me now. It's just what I do.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN MISTAKEN FOR A CRAZY MAN?Who says I'm not one? No, I've been doing this for 25 years. I play the character of an eccentric artist very well. It's who I am, after all. If I'm working on a piece and I know I'm going to need a lot of cans, there's no way around it – I'm going to have to put on a pair of gloves and root through people's trash. And my car is painted too; my car is a big piece of art. But I hope I don't look like a crazy person. With all these tattoos, I look more like a rock guitarist who didn't make it back to the bus. I got left behind – and now I'm collecting trash!

IN SCAVENGING TERMS, WHAT'S THE MOTHER LODE? WHAT'S THE MOST EXCITING FIND YOU'VE EVER MADE?If I come across a barn that's falling down, and the owner agrees to let me take it down, that's a pretty big deal. When I was building La Familia Divinafor the Coachella Festival, I had a very short space of time to source materials. I happened upon an old lumber yard that had absolutely everything I needed – 14ft structural posts from the 1920s that were in mint conditions, old wood that you can't get anywhere. That was very exciting – to me at least.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE PLANNED FOR THE BODY AND SOUL FESTIVAL?It's completely open at this point. That's what's so exciting. Nobody knows what I'm going to make. I don't know what I'm going to make. And what's different about this festival is that what I make this time doesn't get taken down. It's going to live on. So if anyone reading this has a barn that's falling down, they can e-mail me on info@bodyandsoul.ie and I'll come take it down. Even if you have a bag of cans to donate or want to hang out and learn how to do some of this stuff, just drop me a line.

The Body and Soul Festival takes place at Ballinlough Castle, Clonmellon, Co Westmeath today and tomorrow