When I saw my first pictures of the Pink Bus, a Pepto-pink double-decker that had previously only existed in my dreams alongside unicorns and cotton-candy clouds, I wanted to get on board immediately. From its overturned bathtub bar covered with melted vinyl records, to a ceiling with an array of lampshades hanging down like stalactites, it is a treasure trove of scraps that have been transformed into an entirely unique and surprisingly homey environment. Unfortunately for me, the bus is parked in Edinburgh, so I sought out its two creators – Reading, England’s Victoria Brook and Caroline Fletcher.

The Pink Bus was born out of Victoria and Caroline’s growing concern with trash and its negative impact on their surroundings. While in pursuit of their fine art degrees at University, they decided to use their sophomore year project as an opportunity to take their apprehension and do something positive. They began collecting unwanted possessions donated by charity shops, front gardens, skips, and hedgerows, motivated by the desire to transform them into something beautiful. That was before they knew their idea would sprout wheels.

In transforming a rusty old bus into an art installation using junk, Victoria and Caroline hoped to make a difference in the way people saw their refuse and its long-term effects. They did not expect that in cobbling rubbish together they were also building a community. Having lived in Los Angeles long enough to let the sprawl of the city make crossing the East/West border akin to crossing the Alps, I could really appreciate the importance and difficulty of their achievement. From the shopkeepers they met in their search for just the right pieces of refuse, to the fans of comedy and music who got a chance to experience one-of-a-kind shows on the top deck of the Pink Bus, Caroline and Victoria harnessed the power of old cast-off objects to build a new environment. Here they share this transformative experience in their own words.

Sofiya Goldshteyn: The most obvious question first – does the bus run?

Pink Bus: The bus sadly does not run. It is a 25 year old Metroline. When we were preparing to take it up to Edinburgh, we did try to get it fixed, as we wanted to run it on Biofuel. We had the support of SEPA (the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency) but financially, we could not afford the repairs at the time so we had to have it towed up instead. As soon as we have raised a bit of funding we will get it fixed as we think it would look very spectacular being driven around.

SG: I know the original inspiration for the Pink Bus was all the trash you saw, what other environmental issues are a daily concern for you and the people in your particular area of England?

PB: Air pollution. Coincidentally, since we begun our bus project, there has been a big campaign to encourage people to leave their cars at home and travel by public transport. This drive has been matched by investment in the transport system, but there is still a long way to go to make a noticeable impact on the levels of carbon emissions from cars. We think attitudes towards environmental issues are definitely changing for the better, but it is at a very gradual rate. People accept that they need to make changes, but perhaps are unsure as to how big a change has to be made to be effective.

SG: What kind of reactions have you observed from people towards your project and towards environmentalism in general?

PB: The people we collect our materials from are initially very surprised that we want to take away whatever they’ve discarded. Once we explain what we are using it for however, we have found everyone reacts very positively about their ‘rubbish’ being re-used. We found an old metal shop sign for Hovis bread left out in a garden and on approaching the owner he was very protective about it, even though he had left it in the elements (in fact he gave it to us strictly on loan, threatening to remove our kneecaps if it didn’t get returned). We invited him to the unveiling of the bus with his Hovis bread signs mounted on the outside of the bus and he was so pleased to have them displayed and appreciated, he donated them (and we got to keep our kneecaps). The attitude to environmental awareness is slowly changing in households but by being able to take people’s waste and turn it into something visually unexpected and entertaining is a very effective way of promoting change.

SG: You didn’t know from the beginning that you wanted to use the bus as a performance space, right? What are the unique benefits of having such an unusual venue?

PB: When we first begun the project, I don’t think we thought past the bus being anything more than an installation piece. But after holding a party on the bus to celebrate our degree marks and thank everyone involved, it became clear the atmosphere on board was completely unique. As a venue, the atmosphere is instant as soon as you enter the bus, and the intimate ‘stage’ at the front of the top deck creates a performance experience like nothing else, particularly when watched from the double bed.

SG: I bet! What are your favorite parts of the bus?

PB: We love our double bed on the top deck, which became one of our performers, the comedian Paul Foot’s stage as he conducted bedtime story shows from it to a pajama-clad audience. We also have a ‘love corner’ for our romantically inclined visitors which is complete with Mills and Boon wallpaper, pink chandeliers, posters of great lovers (Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart) and a velvet heart that sings love melodies when squeezed (we were very excited to haul that treasure out of a skip still working).
We find that although we put the bus together, there is still new angles to see it from and things to find, particularly as on every flat surface we have papered up old newspapers, song sheets and discarded documents so there is always something waiting to be read.


SG: That ‘s awesome! What was the best part of working on the bus for you guys?

PB: We felt the most rewarding part of creating the installation was meeting the people who donated all their unwanted possessions. As well as gathering items from our local community, we also had a team of charity shop volunteers who collected up all their unsellable stock for us each week. Although charity shops try not to throw away a lot, they have to get rid of items that they can’t shift and so it ends up in a landfill. Even now, despite the fact that the bus is packed to bursting with objects, we can remember where the pieces were found, why we chose them and who they were given by. We both feel that the best part of using recycled materials is the history of the object that is contained within it.

SG: That’s beautiful, and you really feel like you’re looking at something special when you see any of the objects on your bus – especially the stuffed animals, those really struck me and made me think about their past lives. And of course, all ordinary objects have such lives.

PB: Yes, Germano Celant sums this up well in “A Bottle Full of Notes and Some Voyages,” in which he discusses Claes Oldenburg’s and Coosje van Bruggen’s interest in the mundane and everyday objects: “It is on the stage of the ‘everyday’ of the world of things and objects in the world, that the self, through the process of its imagination, gambles with constructing an ‘alternative’ to the world, a history and identity of its own.” It is this identity that interests us; how is it that individual people can sometimes project something of themselves onto inanimate objects and make them their own. It is this essence that we are tried to capture.

SG: What are some of your favorite objects you found for the bus?

PB: When we were looking for the bar materials, we found an old curved bath surround in a front garden on top of which we melted on vinyl records to make the perfect bar top. One of our favourite finds was a car seat cover with “pink wheels” written on it which is now on the driver’s seat. This particular item we rescued from the bottom of a skip. At times it felt very much as though the bus had already created itself and then exploded, scattering its contents, and our task was to put it back together. It was a very organic process.

SG: What are some of the ideas about waste that you’d like to impart on your viewers?

PB: Most of the objects we gathered had already been designed and manufactured to fulfil certain functions and had since become obsolete. Redeploying them in a new environment, brought a new perspective and challenged the roles they were created for. We hope that by doing this we inspire the potential in the huge amount of objects we waste. 


SG: What were some of your influences or inspirations for the Pink Bus?

PB: The root inspiration was Christoph Buchel’s exhibition, “Simply Botiful,” an installation piece set within a warehouse in London’s Brick Lane. The show is a series of illusions, playing on the psychological and environmental connections we have with material objects.
We strongly connected with the carved out habitats that Buchel created. Like Buchel, we like to impart something about the people who once owned the objects and that sense of remnant energy prevents it as merely being a pile of rubbish. Our visits to the Whitley estate (an expansive post- World War 2 housing estate in Berkshire, Reading) that houses a wide range of different people have further inspired us, meeting people and photographing houses and driveways that display similar hoarding, with some people creating cocoons of protection built around their individual living space.
Celant has a great quote about this: “The self is constantly confronted with the irrepressible oscillation of the things of the world, and risks getting lost in the labyrinth of their infinite travels. In order to avoid that loss and to face down the terror of being drowned in the world’s avalanche of objects, the self tries to capture some of these things, to make them its own, it gives them personal value, whether positive or negative.”
In a similar way, we have become drawn to observing how people hang on to so much. The way they are kept, stored, hoarded, can tell us something about their lives. It is likely that our interpretation is not the actuality, but we have satisfied our own need to understand how these objects function within people’s lives.

SG: That’s really interesting, viewing the world as an avalanche of objects, and making up your own histories based on the way a person hangs on to their stuff. I hope you keep sharing the bus with people, the discussions and thoughts it stimulates are really worthwhile… Speaking of sharing, what is the next stop for the Pink Bus?

PB: We are currently applying for funding to take the bus to a series of Festivals coming up throughout the year. The bus has recently been the anchor exhibit to The Royal West of England Academy’s Autumn Exhibition and we hope that other galleries will be interested in showing it. The bus is also for sale and so if it is snapped up by someone it will provide us with the funds to continue making work together. We feel the bus is best when it’s inhabited and so our goal is to keep bringing it to new audiences. We also get people bringing their unwanted possessions on board and taking things away from the bus so it is continually evolving.

SG: I love the interactive aspect of that! And I’d really like to see what your artistic process will evolve into next. Have you started thinking about your next collaboration?

PB: The next idea we are exploring involves storage facilities. We are inspired by the idea of the secrets, the excesses and the forgotten in storage warehouses. We are currently looking into taking over a floor of a storage facility and creating installations in each of the bays for an audience to walk around. The eerie atmosphere and voyeuristic element we feel will provide a memorable viewing experience.

SG: Sounds creepy and fascinating in all the right ways. I can’t wait to catch up with you then, I’m sure it’s going to be amazing!