American artist and designer Misha Khan has gathered trash from the beach and turned it into objects that resemble sea creatures for an installation at New York gallery Friedman Benda.

Brooklyn-based Khan gathered the materials for his exhibition from Dead Horse Bay ? an inlet near to the Rockaways beach in Queens. The bay is home to landfill for New York City's garbage, and trash has spilled onto the sand, making it a treasure trove for artists.

To these found objects, Khan has also added concrete, glass, metals and grass, which he applied using a variety of techniques such as weaving, metal cladding, glassblowing and bronze casting. The result is a series of bizarre-looking pieces, from the spiky Squirm hanging light with furry ends and a twisted glass tail, and the spindly, skeletal bronze frame of The Wanderer's, to the Miss Fishy chair shaped like a fish bone.
Khan titled the installation of works ? which is currently on show at Friedman Benda's gallery in Chelsea ? Midden Heap, after the piles of debris known as middens that octopuses create from leftover food to hide their homes.

"The Giant Pacific Octopus is such an amazing creature," said Kahn. "It can camouflage itself, get rid of predators by spraying them with black ink, regrow a limb and ? most insane of all ? decorate its front yard."
"Incorporating aquatic treasures, as well as the carcasses of their prey, they create scrappy underwater facades known as 'midden heaps'," he co...