a WASTE of SPACE: What a week of wonders…

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Aluminium Fox - Jethro Brice - a WasteofSpace, Litterarti

Aluminium Fox – Jethro Brice – a WasteofSpace, Litterarti

What an opportunity and honour to be working with such inspiring, talented people! I am in awe. We have pulled it off! in 2 weeks 25 artists, and with the help and dedication of 10 volunteers, we have managed to pull together an exhibition of excellent quality. We have had workshops running everyday engaging and inspiring kids and adults alike. Today we had Sadie Few and Jan Blake joining in a workshop exploring cardboard. With Louise Block getting creative with plastic. These works contribute to the exhibition, allowing for everyone to be involved. I’d like to cordially invite you to join us and not to miss this wonderful event of collaboration. Here are some pics from the last two days:

Kids making their marks using the stencils of The Fly, exploring stencil work.

Kids making their marks using the stencils of The Fly.

Kids enjoying the installation of photography by Kat LaMiette. Very Sophisticated!

Kids enjoying the installation of photography by Kat LaMiette. Very Sophisticated!

Exhibition from the Scraptors

Exhibition from the Scraptors

Tomorrow, Friday, 8 August, 11-3 pm we see the collaboration of two makers / designers and two conceptual artists exploring willow weaving work and placing value on single use plastic bags!  Two artists  – Sarah Jayne Edwards , a maker, and conceptual artist, Seila Fernandez Arconada will be joining kids to create a bug’s nest to be installed on-site in the garden. Sarah’s preferred medium is willow, and through an engaging process facilitated by Seila, who works with  the kids will create a habitat made out of bits of found materials and willow branches. Artist Jethro Brice and upcycling designer, Fiona Hobson join up making a powerful statement about our comfortable lifestyles and the devastating effects this has on the environment. Join them in creating a quilt out of plastic bags and crisp packets.

Wednesday, Day 2 – a Waste of Space – workshops with Fiona Campbell and Pete Margerum

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An interactive sculpture by Artists, Tim Floyd, and Fred Plumley, made from discarded wood and beer cans found in the local park

An interactive sculpture by Artists, Tim Floyd, and Fred Plumley, made from discarded wood and beer cans found in the local park.

A Waste of Space exploring waste and discarded materials creatively. All visitors are invited to participate in the exhibition by making something out of waste.

Monstrous bird work in progress created by group and artists Phipholle and Bridget Ely

Monstrous bird work in progress created by group and artists Phipholle and Bridget Ely

Tree Sculpture made be Pete Margerum and Fiona Campbell. litterarti, WasteofSpace workshop

Tree Sculpture made be Pete Margerum and Fiona Campbell. litterarti, WasteofSpace workshop

We had a lovely day yesterday ,creating a monstrous bird, mutated after consuming plastic over a multitude of years.

How wonderful to see people having fun and stripping off the layers of perfection inhibiting them to truly be free to create.

Today’s workshop include helping to create a tree out of copper wire and exhaust pipes. The structure has already been created by Fiona and Pete, and we will be adding branches, leaves, insects and all things wild and wonderful to the structure. The materials we are exploring today are softdrink cans and plastic bottle lids.

Both Pete and Fiona have been working with waste materials for years and have a lot of workshop experience between them. They both work at schools in the South West as eco-educators, really communicating sustainability messages in their work while expressing themselves creatively.

Sessions start at 11 am and 1:15 pm. Hope to see you there!

 

a WASTE of SPACE: 25 Artists. 9 Willing Volunteers. Eco-Educators. A Film-Maker.

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A WASTEofSPACE is the brainchild of Pete Margerum and Annali Alletha with the vision of having a dedicated space, where traditional “waste” materials can be creatively explored. Where dedicated workshops  and education take place within this dedicated environment.

Painting on cardboard by Thomas Dowdeswell

Painting on cardboard by Thomas Dowdeswell

Through this exhibition, we explore this concept as a reality. By working with artists, all exploring “waste-materials” in their work, we question the process of when waste becomes valuable or turns into resources. As can be seen also in the work of exhibiting artist Thomas Dowdeswell, an established painter, whom clearly illustrates how the impulse to create, does not care about the surfaces it gets exposed to. It is the ultimate illustration of adding value to seemingly worthless objects, when necessity calls for it. These works were created when he could not afford a canvas, but does it detract from the value of the art work? From the purity of expression?

The current trend of waste being a subject matter to many artists, and becoming increasingly popular as representations in gallery spaces, ie. the recent Installation of Phyllida Barlow in the Tate Gallery in London. I call it a trend, but I am a firm believer of artists being able to represent the unseen, hidden sub-conscious of culture. They say if you want to see what a culture is like, look at the art which gets produced. By bringing this art into the public, and involving and engaging people who do not normally go into galleries, we have the opportunity to alter perceptions around waste.

Phyllida Barlow, Tate Gallery London

Phyllida Barlow, Tate Gallery London

Through this exhibition we also seek to bring the “unseen” to the surface. Waste has the quality of out of sight, out of mind. And a big problem with our inability to act on the amount of pollution in our cities, is because it gets tucked away out-of-sight in a landfill site. If we were exposed to the smells and horrors of a landfill site on our doorstep, we would think differently about our wasteful ways. Well, we’re not gonna create a landfill site and pretend it is art. But essentially what we seek to do with this exhibition is allow a space where the individual is confronted to question his / her own relationship with waste.

 

Fiona Campbell and Pete Margerum creating a tree from exhaust pipes for the litterARTI a WASTEofSPACE Exhibition 5- 9 August. Participants will complete the artwork during workshops which will take place on Wednesday, 5 August 2014.

Fiona Campbell and Pete Margerum creating a tree from exhaust pipes for the litterARTI a WASTEofSPACE Exhibition 5- 9 August. Participants will complete the artwork during workshops which will take place on Wednesday, 5 August 2014.

As the week progresses, the “waste” within the space will accumulate through creative workshops. An ants’ nest of activities! And on the final day of the week, we will be able to see the collective footprint of visitors represented creatively and beautifully. All the workshops are run by established and up-coming artists. Artists from different disciplines are invited to collaborate and new relationships are formed. So often this wonderful work is created in isolation, so what this project also seeks is for collaboration and fresh new ideas to inform current work processes. All these artists are explorers of “new-materials” finding new ways to use and engage with materials in excess in our environments. Only through the sharing of techniques and ideas will this zeitgeist gain momentum. It can almost be likened to have the same excitement as the Industrial Revolution, with the Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace and the Eiffel Tower. But with an added challenge – pre-conceived prejudices about the already existing materials, which adds a psychological angle to it. Then the total devastation involved in the excess of these materials causing death in our oceans, and health hazards to humans with less access to public services, where the waste tends to accumulate.

Sadie Few exploring making creations out of cardboard for the workshop on Thursday, 7 August 2014

Sadie Few exploring making creations out of cardboard for the workshop on Thursday, 7 August 2014

Jan Blake busy exploring ideas for the workshop on Thursday, 7 August 2014

Jan Blake busy exploring ideas for the workshop on Thursday, 7 August 2014

During the week other activities include: fancy dress fun litter pick challenges, with outfits provided by  Bristol Textile Recyclers. Fancy Dress costumes headed for India and Pakistan, intercepted by litterARTI to engage kids and make litter picking fun! Stencils provided by The Fly, will allow participants to make statements about litter. We need to start changing perceptions about litter-picking in our societies, that it is unacceptable behaviour to drop litter, but also to ignore litter. If we all take the 2 minute Beach Clean challenge in our own neighbourhoods, you will start to create a culture of litter picking champions. Also look at how LITTERATI seeks to encourage cleaning up the streets: By using Instagram, picturing the litter which you then discard in the correct ways. This way a global map is created where litter has been picked. Litter picking needs to become socially acceptable, and people need to start taking responsibility of their wasteful ways. Collectively. Encouraged within communities.

We are also working with Resource Futures during this exhibition, who provides us with the information necessary to educate and inform accurately about the waste materials we are exploring during the exhibition.

All artists involved in this project, are stakeholders of this project as well. Everyone has agreed to work for half their normal rate, which shows the dedication to the project. The artworks exhibited for sale during the exhibition, will allow for 20% of the profits to go towards the litterARTI – Artists – Collective. We are raising funds which will allow for all the workshop artists to get DBS Clearance Certificates, which will allow them to carry this work forward.

The Scraptors. Fiona Campbell. Pete Margerum. Jethro Brice. Tim Floyd. Thomas Dowdeswell. Lee Kirby. Alison Harper. Jan Blake. Louise Block. Bridget Ely. Sarah Jayne Edwards. Seila Fernandez Arconada. Jennifer Blackwood. Fred Plumley. Object… The Fly. Katryn LaMiette. Katharina Nyilas. Olivia Jones.  Sadie FewFiona Hobson. Phipholle. Annali Alletha. Matt Harris. Ruth Worsley. Morwhenna Woolcock. Domenico Alecci.  Aimee McCabe. Alexandra Rowson. Maxine Hughes. Megan Sutcliffe. Beverly Heath. Clare Wood. June Burrough. Joe Hoare.