In his latest work, “The Twisted, Structural Entropy, Fragmented, Degraded and Demented World of Junk Tower (And The Single Stream Use of Human Beings), environmental artist Daniel Lanzilotta harvested crack vials to construct a nearly 5-foot-high totem, a symbol of the continuum of addiction and the haunting beauty of these colorful, candy-like vessels derived from toxic fossil fuels and filled with a lethal drug.

During Covid, he happened to notice more while collecting plastic debris for his art—mostly in black and brown communities—until he began to intentionally gather them. 

“People are the plastic. They’re disposable. Not just the plastic crack vials,” he said, citing historic racism that has broken generations of the human spirit. 

Lanzilotta used hundreds of crack vials along with thousands of handcrafted plastic beads, a ritual that pays homage to his grandmother, who sewed beads onto wedding dresses. He seeks to honor the users he's met and bring significance to their lives.

 “Junk Tower,” a towering structure with its height and vibrance, its myriad of shapes and sizes, its branches and helix-like curves, intends for the viewer to give pause, to ponder how so many lives were lost.

 And the birds on the structure: their souls set free, even if in death.    

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