Where has the summer gone?
It seems like only yesterday that I was panicking about what to produce for the end of my second year of my Ba exhibition.
Although having wild dreams of opening a pop up gallery over the summer and having a right old laugh and making somegreat art it didn’t quite go as planned,but I did get a job working at a distribution and recycling centre for tele’s,washing machines and fridge’s- my job was to seperate the recyclable materials which where shipped off to be recycled(clues in the name on that one) it started out as just something to keep me busy and earn a bit of money until my course started up again.
BUT one thing I didn’t expect was the job pricked at my conscience and got me thinking about my rubbish habits and recycling(or lack of) aswell as how my environment and further afield are impacted by my actions.
After a few weeks of churning a few ideas over in my head(I had nothing else to think about whilst seperating cardboard,plastic and polystyrene) I decided to write a few down and explore them a little further.
I am a fan of freecycle and getting things for free,usually stuff that no-one else uses anymore,(this is something that goes back to my child hood when all the cool kids got their hands on the new toys and as we were quite poor I had to wait for the ‘scraps’ and ended up getting my hands on the broken and slightly damaged cast offs(I could always find another action figure with the missing leg still in place and splice the two together,or replace the string and glue the two halfs of a yo-yo back together,or use the motor from a battery powered fan for something cool).
Having previously been to a couple of exhibitions at the photographers gallery and spending the day googling recycled art,I came to the conclusion that I will make my final year about exploring the re-cycling, appropriating, collaging and upcycling of materials that are generally discarded and to give them a new lease of life and meaning that will at least slow the process of this consumerist detritus being thrown away,if I am not able to halt, entirely my materials from being thrown away altogether.
I have never really been into the whole save the planet stuff but for some reason my summer experiance has started to change my ideas.
I am attending a conference entitled ‘TRASH’ next week (14th September) and I cannot wait to get cracking.
ideas come in the dead of night,I cannot sleep for these things keep me awake, I have to act on my impulses and once they leave my brain I can rest easy.
