New York artist Justin Gignac has sold out a limited edition of small acrylic cubes filled with street debris collected directly outside Madison Square Garden on the day of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding, turning everyday urban waste into portable collectibles that reached buyers across more than 30 countries within 24 hours.
Justin Gignac, the New York artist behind the NYC Garbage project and a co-founder of the viral ElfYourself website, was born in 1981 and works as a freelance artist, entrepreneur, speaker, and investor based in New York. He launched his New York City Garbage project in 2001 by hand-selecting authentic city trash and sealing it inside signed, numbered, and dated acrylic cubes. More than 1,300 of these sculptures have sold to collectors in over 30 countries, with regular versions typically priced at $50 and limited event editions at $100. Gignac also co-created the viral ElfYourself website that, according to Marketing Dive’s 2017 reporting, had generated 1.5 billion customized elves since launching in 2006.
The wedding edition collection began on July 3, 2026, the same evening as the ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where Swift and Kelce reportedly tied the knot. Gignac dressed in the same tuxedo he wore at his own wedding, added gloves and a trash-picker tool, and gathered debris from the sidewalks and streets surrounding the venue. He focused on items left behind after the high-profile event, which included a mix of cigarette butts, water-bottle caps, straws, utensils, pieces of caution tape, fragments of a rainbow fan, a discarded left AirPod, a Ring Pop candy, and an ovulation test kit. Many of the objects were knotted together to reflect the wedding theme before placement inside the cubes.
Each finished piece measures 1 inch by 1 inch by three-quarters of an inch and forms part of the debut Pocket Garbage line under the name Not Invited Edition. Gignac arranged the contents inside clear acrylic containers, sealed them airtight to prevent leakage or odor, and signed the base of every cube. Buyers received a randomly selected piece rather than choosing specific contents, which added an element of chance to the limited run of 50 small cubes. Larger versions of similar garbage sculptures carry a $100 price point, while the compact wedding-themed cubes launched at $25 each.
Gignac created the collection as a natural extension of his long-running project that transforms discarded materials into numbered art objects tied to significant public moments. He noted in descriptions shared with the release that he expected strong interest from the couple’s dedicated followers who might want to keep a tangible reminder of the day close at hand wherever they traveled. The items became available through an online platform designed for direct artist releases, with international buyers responsible for any applicable shipping fees or tariffs. This timing allowed the drop to capture attention shortly after the July 3 ceremony while building on Gignac’s history of quick sellouts for prior event-based editions.
Collectors from more than 30 countries purchased the cubes, with the majority appearing to be fans of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce drawn to the connection with their wedding. Previous limited editions in the New York City Garbage series sold rapidly after other major events, including championship parades for the Yankees and Giants, the first day same-sex marriage became legal in New York City, President Obama’s inauguration, and even an international edition created for Dublin’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. One earlier season of 50 cubes priced at $100 each sold out in roughly 90 minutes, showing consistent demand for the format when linked to timely cultural moments. Gignac has mentioned that passersby during the wedding-day collection sometimes assumed he was a guest helping clean up after the celebration.
The rapid success of this drop and the accompanying online conversations highlight ongoing patterns in how enthusiasts engage with celebrity milestones through physical objects, even unconventional ones presented as art. While the offering prompted some commentary suggesting fans moderate their spending on such memorabilia, it also demonstrated how scarcity, clear narrative, and artistic framing can elevate ordinary street debris into desirable items, mirroring the wider trend of turning unexpected material into limited collectibles across small-batch collector drops of cultural artifacts. Gignac continues to share updates on future releases in the series through his established channels, allowing collectors to track expansions of the pocket-sized format and other event-tied drops.
