Entry No. 53 — the Oklahoma City file — filed under: outdoor
Hazmatt Sculpture
Tucked behind the chain-link fence of Norman's Household Hazardous Waste Facility, a 20-foot reclining figure made almost entirely from the city's own retired dumpsters stares peacefully at the Oklahoma sky, one enormous hand cradling a single wildflower. Norman artist Kenneth Eugene Hall Jr. (with collaborator Derek Vosten and the city's sustainability team) spent years welding decommissioned city bins into "Hazmatt" — a gentle giant whose name is a pun on the hazmat site it calls home. The whole thing cost just over $14,000 scraped from leftover construction funds, was assembled partly on a city maintenance lot, and was unveiled January 13, 2026 to a ribbon-cutting crowd at a place most people only visit to drop off old paint. None of Norman's major tourism guides have noticed it yet — because who goes looking for art at the hazardous-waste drop-off?
The move: Drive out to the facility, park in the lot, and spend twenty minutes up close with a trash-bin titan holding a flower — then grab a patio table at one of the campus-area bars and argue about whether it's the best or weirdest public art in Oklahoma.
📍 Before you go The address points to a working municipal waste site, which can feel like a wrong turn, but Hazmatt sits out in the open just south of Highway 9 near OU off Chautauqua Avenue — you take it in from outside, so no appointment or proof of residency is needed (that policy only governs actual waste drop-off, not seeing the figure). Come in daylight: this is a roadside outdoor piece with no lighting after dark, and it shares a fenced, active work yard, so stay clear of operations and gates. The OU campus and the Campus Corner dining strip sit only a few minutes north when you want to make an evening of it.
- 📍 Norman
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: 3803 Chautauqua Ave, Norman, OK 73072
Hours: Added 2026-06-09 — confirm current hours before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: normanok.gov · oudaily.com · normantranscript.com · hoodline.com
last checked: 2026-06-09