Robin Frohardt has lived across the street from a Home Depot parking lot in Brooklyn for about 17 years. From her window, she’s taken note of the sights and sounds.
“There’s so much traffic,” the multidisciplinary artist said. “There’s truly epic, Academy Award-winning honking that happens there on a daily basis.”
The endless commotion of trucks, shopping carts and people inspired her to recreate the Home Depot and the surrounding neighborhood — entirely out of cardboard.
“Every part of it has been a challenge,” she said Saturday while she rehearsed for a performance that combines her cardboard set with puppetry and cinema. “It’s a crazy idea.”
Frohardt used cardboard to recreate the Home Depot across the street from her home in Brooklyn.
Frohardt is an award-winning artist and the brains behind The Plastic Bag Store, an art installation that came to Austin in 2022. It featured a grocery store where every item was made of plastic.
She’s bringing her newest show, Shopping Center of the Universe, to Austin’s McCullough Theatre on Friday and Saturday.
“ I think people, especially in America, especially in Texas, can relate to this endless shopping center thing that’s happening,” Frohardt said. “How do we feel as humans about that?”
The parking lot ecosystem
Frohardt’s show reimagines the ordinary strip mall and presents it as an ecosystem — every patron, every car as a part of nature.
“It’s teeming with fauna,” she said. “There are day laborers that are at every entrance, a couple amazing tamale vendors nearby, lots of can and bottle collectors, some people gathering ‘sticks for their nests,’ I say, with their lumber carts.”
Most of the cardboard Frohardt used to create her universe was from a Home Depot in Brooklyn and the surrounding neighborhood.
Frohardt tells the story through puppeteers, cameras, projections, sounds and music. It’s an orchestra of moving pieces.
“You’re watching us create this handmade animation live on stage,” she said. “It’s kind of funny to me, too, the contrast of all of these high-tech cameras, computer systems, projectors and then just cardboard.”
Most of the cardboard Frohardt uses came from her Home Depot and the surrounding neighborhood.
“It’s a show made of itself, for sure,” she said.
Frohardt is using puppeteers, cameras, projections, sounds and music for her performance this month at the McCullough Theatre.
A universal environment
Frohardt said the charm of most cities comes from small businesses, bars and restaurants. Chain stores, like Home Depot, don’t reflect the personality of a community.
“We’re covering every town in these places that could be anywhere, which makes them feel like nowhere. They’re just these vast oceans of beige,” she said. “It gives you this loss of sense of place or connection.”
When Forhardt debuted The Plastic Bag Store, she included local products in her fake grocery store. In Austin, she included H-E-B products and barbecue sauce.
This time around, she doesn’t have to personalize the show.
“I think it’s a universal feeling. … We all are living in the exact same environment and it’s just de-interest-ifying the country,” she said. “You’ll definitely think about this show the next time you’re in a place like that.”