Canstruction’ sculptures featured at Fiesta Mall
Courtney Packer
Ten teams of architects, contractors and engineers competed in “Canstuction” at Fiesta Mall in Mesa on Feb. 13. The teams had 12 hours to create a structure completely out of canned food and nonperishable food items.
Although the teams built their sculptures in 12 hours, on average teams spent 150 hours coming up with the design, said Janine Pelekoudas, Canstruction Chairman.
The structures were on display for the public to view from February 14 through the 21. The theme for the competition was “destroying hunger,” and all 47,000 cans used in the event were donated to St. Mary’s Food Bank.
The sculpters competed in six categories.
Best Meal, the award for the best overall use of the different food groups, was won by “Can you dig it,” a sculpture of a bulldozer.
The new Metro Light Rail was featured in a sculpture with the theme “Extending Across Phoenix to Help Reduce Hunger”. It was the crowd favorite and got the most votes from shoppers at the mall.
Other winners included “Lego of Hunger” which was shaped in the form of a Lego man, which won Structural Ingenuity. The award for the best use of labels went to a piece with the Arizona State flag and cactus made from cans of green chiles, which was titled “The Grand CANyon state.”
A giant Ironman head had the motto “Ironman CAN conquer hunger” won honorable mention.
A sculpture of Wall-E, made mostly of Spam, also won an honorable mention.
Other designs included “Hunger isn’t hip” which was made like the game “Hungry-Hungry Hippos”, a giant Wii remote and console with the message “Wii CAN stop hunger,” a giant “food-iks cube,” and a treasure chest with the reminder to “Treasure an end to hunger.”
There were no trophies or ribbons for the winners, though “Besides bragging rights, each winner will go to compete in the National/ International Canstruction Competition via photo submission,” Pelekoudas said.
