I was proud to be selected as one of the artists in an exhibition called Web of Water. It’s in connection with Artcore and is curated by Saira Lloyd and Tracey Kershaw.
The brief was that we could respond to the theme any way we chose but it had to be in the form of the graphic novel! I’ve spent several weeks researching my theme and producing the work. I’ve made a photographic collage which I’m happy to say went off to the framers last week. It’s quite a busy and colourful collage of images and I felt it needed to be to help the viewer to engage with the grim environmental theme that is attached to it.
The subject matter is related to my previous work, it’s about rubbish collecting in the sea. I don’t live anywhere near to the sea though, so I took my photos at some nearby gravel pits. Here, I found rubbish washed up as it does on beaches. It was a very disturbing sight. The rubbish from the heavy industries of the past seemed to have collided with the domestic debris of the present. All this washed around what appeared to me to be ancient Willow trees.
After more reading and researching some very disturbing facts came to my attention. I already knew that the plastic rubbish floating in the seas breaks down into ever smaller pieces and that microplastics were contaminating the seas through the use of exfoliants. What I didn’t know was that polyester and other man-made fibres are also contaminating the seas from washing machines. This is bad news that could even be worse than climate change. I feel myself getting political in 2014.
In the meantime the Socket exhibition of Stream is continuing its journey to the Sock Gallery in Loughborough where it will stay until March 1st. The artists will be there for the opening on Saturday 18th January between 4.00-6.00pm. All welcome.
