Rubbish

Currently Reading: Vergine, Lea. (2007). When Trash Becomes Art: TRASH rubbish mongo. Skira Rizzoli, Milan.

Vergine Lea presents an anthology of mainly Western artists using trash. The format of the book is straightforward and image rich. In the introduction she groups artists in her survey of their usage, follows with a large Artworks chapter featuring the mentioned artists and more, then by a Fragments of Writings by Artists chapter and lastly an Illustrated Chronology of the Use of Trash which is edited by Rosella Ghezzi.

In making a definition of trash, Lea paraphrasing Giorgio Manganelli’s unnamed 1966 text proposes “trash is language.” (p.8)

In the introductory subsection What We Mean By Trash, Lea uses Italian writer and radio host Tommaso Labranca’s 1994 book on trash (Andy Warhol era un coatto. Vivere e capire il trash, Castelvecchi, 1994) defining trash as “an unsuccessful emulation, a failed imitation”. (p.8)

In the subsection Trash, Lea cites Italian writer and economist Guido Viale (1994, Un monde usa e getta) “The predication for used things over factory-new objects is a product of the belief that not everything is brand new is necessarily to be used and not everything that is old and worn need necessary be abolished. “Trash constitutes a world of its own, complete and symmetrical to the world of merchandise: A world that behind the mirror in which consumer civilisation loves to admire itself and create its own self-awareness, restores our understanding of the truer nature of the product that populate our everyday lives. The waste of industrial society and in a very particular manner, the trash produced by consumer civilisation, is in a certain sense the dross of that systematic activity of robbery and waste of the sources of the earth on which they are based. […] The presence of trash in the world is not eliminated with the supposed elimination through the various forms of waste management. Aside from that, we should recognise its reeking presence in the noosphere,that is, in the world of knowledge and understanding, which represents in some sense a parallel existence of trash in the heavens of the spirit, a genuine and full-fledged soul,. Trash is indeed an enormous, minute and incontrovertible, of the habits an forms of behaviours of those who produced it, aside from the beliefs and perceptions that they have of themselves…” (p.11/12)

Lea also notes that Bulgarian-French philosopher Julia Kristeva, writing on abjection, maintains that to make use of trash is “linked to the etymology of the world, which signifies a return and a shift.” (p.12)

Continued..

George Dickie

In the build up to Market Value at A+D Gallery in Chicago next month, Upper Crust Auction House have published a little feature on the Museum of Contemporary Rubbish which aligns my practice here with Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Univeristy of Illinois, Chicago’s theories of institutional aesthetic values in art:

George Dickie, an analytical philosopher, challenges traditional theories of aesthetic value, perception and experience. He is most well known for his controversial “institutional theory of art.” Simply put, this theory proposes that an object can only be called “art” within the institution known as the “artworld”. In other words, an object is not “art” in and of itself and can only achieve such valuation within a very specific context.

The work of Alice Bradshaw, which will appear in Market Value, can be seen as conversing with Dickie’s theory very directly. Bradshaw is the Director of the Museum of Contemporary Rubbish, a compelling collection of cultural discards. Along with several collaborators, Bradshaw extracts rubbish from the street, documents it and then places it within the Museum’s archive. This archive is then exhibited within galleries and museums across Europe and the United States.

Bradshaw’s aesthetic practice can be seen as an active engagement with Dickie’s institutional theory as the value of neglected cultural objects is transformed from what we call “trash” into what we call “art.”

http://uppercrustauctions.tumblr.com/post/41065830397/george-dickie-an-analytical-philosopher

Ma Qiusha solo exhibition at Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, 18 January – 2 March 2013

Whilst in Manchester yesterday, I popped into the Chinese Arts Centre to see the new show by Ma Qiusha.

Born in the ’80s, Ma Qiusha is an up-and-coming artist living in Beijing. For her first UK solo exhibition with Chinese Arts Centre, she will be showcasing her key works to date. Ma Qiusha’s work reflects a special sensitivity with ordinary everyday objects and materials. Carefully, she re-stages them in an unfamiliar environment to tell a story or express suppressed emotions. Mainly working with video and painting, at first glance her work is calm and expressionless. Only if you spend a certain amount of time with the works, will the underlying story and emotion reveal itself.

http://www.chinese-arts-centre.org/whats-on/exhibitions/ma_qiusha/

In Two Years Younger Than Me (2011) her grandfather’s collection of beard clippings in medicine bottles are positioned on a small shelf in the entrance to the gallery along with a vinyl text piece No.43 Pingshadao (2012) telling the story of Two Years Younger Than Me. The text does not explain why the artist’s grandfather has this peculiar habit. Each small bottle is labelled with the year and chronological ordered. The short shavings are peppered black and white and seem to grow slightly lighter as the years go by. These found objects of collected waste material are united to the common theme of the exhibition of (razor) blades and form part of the artist’s autobiographical tracing of her family life through her work.

The First Cut, Manchester Art Gallery: Artists’ talk with Tom Gallant, Chris Jones and Nicola Dale 19/01/13

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/exhibitions/index.php?itemID=92&tab=cat

Continuing on the paper theme, I went to the artists’ talk at Manchester Art Gallery yesterday featuring participating artists Tom Gallant, Chris Jones and Nicola Dale. I mentioned Nicola’s work Sequel (2012) in a previous post which was commissioned by the gallery specifically for the show. Both the oak tree and cut paper leaves are made from waste materials. The leaves are made from reference books which Nicola collects from charity shops, book sales and other sources where she can get hold of books cheaply or for free. They are often out of date reference books which are no longer useful in their original purpose. Nicola has carefully arranged the leaves by content so that the physical tree represents a tree of knowledge which specific branches for specific areas of knowledge. The tree was from her friend’s small garden where an acorn had been planted 12 years ago and had been blocking out too much light but her friend hadn’t wanted to just cut it down and take it to the tip. The remaining use-values of these materials had been determined by the previous owners at that specific time and have been recycled to give another, less conventional purpose and value by the artist.

Also in the collection galleries is another work by Nicola, Down (2010), made from 1970s Ordnance Survey maps which were being thrown away from her local library. Again, these reference books may have some limited remaining market value but the previous owners had rendered them waste as they no longer had held any purpose and value for the library. 12,000 feathers have painstakingly crafted by the artist and she describes each installation as unique, site-responsive even, in order to create a new installation each time. The reconfiguration of the feathers is in each installation a new mapping of territory. In Manchester Art Gallery they are positioned on a low circular plinth. The feathers are symbolic of loss in that as birds shed feathers, traditional skills of map reading are lost as new GPS technologies supersede the need to read a paper map.

Currently reading: Haggith, Mandy. (2008). Paper Trails: Trees to Trash – The True Cost of Paper. Virgin Books, London.

Chapter 1: Addicted to Pulp

Haggith cites quantities of the average British person’s annual paper consumption from the UK Federation of Paper Industries Waste:

20kg (44lb) tissue products

60kg (132lb) paper packaging

10kg (22lb) “other”

80kg (176lb) graphic paper

40kg (88lb) newsprint

200kg (440lb) total

“Used paper is NOT a waste material,” Haggith is quick to assert, “it consists of strong plant fibres that can be used again.” (p.15)

Paper’s re-use value is readily quantifiable: “In New York City fines of $2,000 are imposed for the theft of waste paper from garbage left out on the street for collection indicating that it is valued at least by ‘rustlers’. (p.15)

Chapter 2: From Artisan to Industrialists

Haggith mentions a couple of waste materials paper has been made from: Tasmanian paper artisan Joanna Gair makes Roo Poo Paper from kangaroo dung. In Scandinavia elk droppings are used, buffalo turds are used in Africa and fibre from elephant dung is used for Ellie’s Poo Paper. (p.22)

Tracing China’s 2 million year history of paper production, Haggith finds that rice, straw, sugar cane waste and bamboo are just as good for making paper as tree pulp. (p.22)

“Up until the late nineteenth century almost all paper ij Europe was made from rags, and in fact a Scottish regulation made it illegal to make paper out of anything other than waste materials.” (p.27)

“The British tradition of doot to door collection of old clothes and fabric by the ‘rag and bone man’ stemmed from the demand by the paper industry for rags for fibre and bones for size” (a kind of glue used to strengthen and coat paper for printing). (p.28)

Chapter 3: Checks and Balances

“The most flagrantly wasteful paper we produce is the unsolicited postal itesm known officially as ‘direct mail’ but more widely as junk mail, the vast bulk of which goes straight into the bin without being opened.” The finance sector and mail order catalogue companies are the worst offenders. (p.51)

On the waste of paper making: “Making a single sheet of A4 paper not only causes as much greenhouse gas emissions as burning a light bulb for an hour it also uses a mug full of water. (p.25)