WebUrbanist blog has a neat post about artists who create art from trash. This one to the left is HA Schult's "trash people":
HA Schult’s haunting ‘trash people’ have graced the streets of many of the world’s most major cities … silently open to interpretation as they travel the world and sit everywhere from the parks of New York City to the Great Wall of China. It took Schult 6 months and 30 assistants to create these strange sculptures from crushed cans, computer parts and virtually anything else he could appropriate to assemble them. What is their purpose and meaning? It is difficult to say, but they are certainly trans-cultural and intended to engage, inspire and engender reflection in those who see them and are a foil to see the reactions of different nations and groups of people.
One of my co-workers at Nat Geo dislikes the term "Trash People" and calls them Metallic Americans instead. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/museum/exhibitions/trashPeople.html