What once was old is new again in Rebecca Siemering’s American Made, a man’s suit made from used dental floss and old lottery scratch tickets.

Make it new. That was Ezra Pound’s famously pithy advice to poets, but it also holds true for artists. In fact, given the prominent role that eco-friendly ideas such as recycling and sustainability play in contemporary art, Pound’s words may have never been more relevant.

A case in point is the 11th Annual Fidelity Investments Juried Art Exhibition, which opened Sunday at the Providence Art Club. Installed in the Art Club’s upstairs galleries, the show brims with works that take cast-off objects and materials and make them new again. (My personal favorite: Rebecca Siemering’s American Made, a man’s suit made entirely from used dental floss and old lottery scratch tickets. Despite its humble origins — and what could be more humble than used dental floss? — Siemering’s suit would not look out of place on a Paris or Milan runway.)

On one level, the show’s do-it-yourself spirit isn’t surprising. After all, the past few years have seen a flurry of art-world trends (d.i.y., low-tech, steampunk) that celebrate the expressive possibilities of junk. It also happens that the theme of this year’s Fidelity show is “Green Works,” a creative cue that many of the contributors (perhaps with an eye on the ever-sinking economy) took as an invitation to submit works that incorporate so-called “found” and recycled materials.

But here’s the thing: To succeed artistically, “green” artworks have to be more than just piles of trash on a pedestal. Like Siemering’s lottery-ticket suit, they need to deliver an aesthetic rush — a tingle of visual and/or intellectual delight — along with an environmental benefit. Put another way, it’s not enough just to save the planet. You also have to look good in the process.

Fortunately, many of the show’s entries are up to the challenge.

In part, that’s a testament to this year’s jurors: Diana Gaston, associate curator of Fidelity’s corporate art collection; Bruce Chao, a glassmaker and professor at the Rhode Island School of Design; and Jesse Smith, owner-director of Providence’s 5 Traverse Gallery. Together, they sifted through nearly 300 submissions, eventually selecting 22 artworks by as many artists.

Ultimately, though, the credit belongs to the artists.

Rather than looking at an empty cereal box, a moth-eaten sweater or an old packing crate and seeing something useless, they saw a blank canvas (Mark Freedman’s Highway #1 [Cheerio Highway]), a jazzy patchwork quilt (Caroline Unruh’s Reinvention Dimension) and even a pair of Art Deco skyscrapers (Walt Chaney’s Two Wooden Renderings of a Building).

In this regard, the show’s emblematic work may be Thomas Deininger’s Study for Stroking Monet — a kind of ersatz Monet painting made entirely from cast-off bits of bric-a-brac. In fact, the painting really works on two levels. Seen up close, it’s a mesmerizing montage of junk: broken toys, old electrical wires, plastic picnic utensils and so on. Stand back, though, and you’d swear you were standing in front of one of Monet’s famous views of his water lily pond at Giverny.

Deininger, who’s based in Bristol, has been making these trash-based artworks for several years now, and they never fail to make an impression. I’m not sure they’re enough to build a career on (basically, they’re one-line visual jokes) but if you haven’t seen one before, prepare to be dazzled. You may never look at the contents of your recycle bin the same way again.

Other artists take a similar rags-to-riches approach.

There are the old drapes that textile artist Saberah Malik transformed into a wonderfully textured silk scarf. There’s the hunk of scavenged steel that sculptor Jerold Ehrlich turned into a piece of minimalist Op Art. There’s the old Kodak box camera (a lovely little object in its own right) that Erik Carlson turned into a kind of peep-show art installation, complete with its own soundtrack. There are Ben Anderson’s Emerald Sea sculptures made from old Heineken bottles.

Other highlights: Kenn Speiser’s Best Friends, a quirky mixed media work that somehow manages to transform an eggshell, a few wires and a collection of bottle-cap rings into a kind of futuristic monument; Adrienne Evans’ Sugar Maple (Self-Identification), a clever blend of botany and conceptual art; and Letter to Barbara’s Womb, a sprightly little cut-paper collage by Catalina Viejo Lopex de Roda that manages to be a lot more fun that its title might suggest.

The 11th Annual Fidelity Investments “Green Works” Juried Exhibition” runs through March 27 at the Providence Art Club, 11 Thomas St. Hours: Mon.-Fri. noon-4 and Sat.-Sun. 2-4. Contact: (401) 331-1114 or www.providenceartclub.org.

At 5 Traverse

There’s a weird synergy to the current exhibit at Providence’s 5 Traverse gallery. Step into the gallery’s main exhibit space, and you’re immediately confronted by what looks like a kind of miniature construction site. One structure, perched on the gallery’s print cabinet, suggests a half-finished bridge or aqueduct. Another looks like a skyscraper-in-the making. Another suggests a kind of do-it-yourself Stonehenge with cinder blocks rather than stone slabs.

The man behind this mini-Big Dig is John Lautsen, a Providence artist who’s known for his architecturally-savvy sculptures and installations. What gives Lautsen’s work here a special timeliness is the presence, just outside the gallery, of Providence’s own version of the Big Dig: the ongoing construction/demolition associated with the new I-Way bridge.

Also on display are photographs and multi-media works by Magaly Ponce. Ponce’s photos, which feature close-ups of bent and twisted copper wires, didn’t do much for me, although apparently they have special meaning for the Chilean-born Ponce. (Chile is a major exporter of copper ore.) On the other hand, Ponce’s multimedia stuff is wonderful — especially a video of two wooden matchsticks whose last, flaming moments together are hot enough to merit at least an R-rating.

Ends Saturday at 5 Traverse, 5 Traverse St, Providence. Hours: Wed.-Sun. noon-6. Contact: (401) 278-4968 or www.5traverse.com. (Note: a closing party for the show will he held tomorrow from 7-9 p.m.)

bvansicl@projo.com