Earplugs, shopping carts and clothes pins are just a few of the materials used to best exemplify sustainability in this year’s ninth biennial Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition.

The exhibition, Sculpted Green, explores the idea of sustainability and natural environment through a dynamic display of 38 sculptures. The exhibition will be displayed in Bellevue’s City Hall and Downtown Park through Oct. 5.

“We have gotten a great response,” said Mary Pat Byrne, an arts specialist with the city. “The most immediate is here at City Hall and employees who stop and tell us what people have commented on and how much they like the sculptures.”

Selected from over 250 entries from across the United States and Canada by a jury of nationally recognized artists, many of the 38 sculptural works in the exhibition bring viewers to the intersection of sculpture and sustainability.

Byrne said people have been “tickled” at how the show allows people to look at ordinary objects in a new and interesting way.

Many featured artists use green materials – recycled, repurposed and organic materials – in innovative ways. Others relate art to environmentalism through technique.