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Mierle Laderman Ukeles The Artist Who Made the New York City Sanitation Department Her Inspiration
Harper's Bazaar Jun 08, 2026
Tall, blonde, and often clad in a vibrant green jumpsuit, the artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles stood amidst a sea of garbage at a New York City landfill to shake the hand of a sanitation worker. It was 1984, and Ukeles—the official and unsalaried artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation—was in the process of shaking hands with each and every one of the 8,500 sanitation workers throughout all five boroughs, as part of her performance artwork titled Touch Sanitation.
As she thanked this particular driver, he told her a story: Many years ago, on a hot, humid day, he and his colleagues sat down to rest on the porch steps of a Brooklyn home, when a woman came out and said, “Get away from here you smelly garbage men, I don’t want you stinking up my porch.”
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