I photographed this twice, It was a super small block of ice and melted quickly, thus why some of the material is jutting out, the second series well much better and created some lovely abstract shapes. One which I ended up choosing for the grad show exhibit
Soy sauce fish
Dolls brush and pink barbie watering can
MnM Character
Why is there still waste in 2020, no one else seems to care.
This has been a very hard year, I have walked most days around the parks and shore lines of Sydney Rozelle/Balmain, and Cronulla Beach. During that time there has not been a single day that I have not filled my bag, filled a plastic bag and stuffed my pockets with rubbish. I have been dismayed, disheartened and felt very alone I. This plight.
As a dog walker I have also started a series of photographs to creat a typology that is called “this is not a bin”, that’s consists of dog owners throwing their pop bags anywhere they like.
But back to the materials, one of the hard things has been leaving things behind. I. The back of my mind know that waste is ugly, that it’s dirty and unhygienic. Certain items can’t be cleaned, they can’t be made to look pretty and need to be considered in the future for other art works perhaps.
The collection of items became the micro plastics, lids, straws, toys, lighters and dummies. The other items where thrown in the bin(recycled when possible) if it was an unusual shape or plastic object it was kept and again in the future I might create a similar artwork to the object of Stephen McPherson’s where he creates inventions from unusual shapes.
Cava 390 never fit the bill for me with making things, it was more about combining and figuring out how I can create the individual and connective. I definitely thing my mouth of plastic idea and eating plastic was connected to the finals works or desired works. Because the two subjects That I had the most success with are both connect to the mouth, communication, breathing, eating survival comes from the mouth. So by using straws which is an individual hard plastic item and dummies which are one of the things that we place in our innocent child’s mouth. It all made sense for me. The melting of the dummies significant to global warming the melding and linking talks about togetherness bringing individuals together to fix this problem. As the work is is frozen it becomes a statement, one which stops and pauses the issue for all to see. It becomes inescapable and unavoidable with water melting and lapping the floor at your feet.
Medium Why one of the first reasons I decided to use ice was because of the lack of waste when combining objects together to photograph, I never thought it would send me on such a trajectory.
Environmental
The comparison to global warming and ice caps melting all over the world due to climate pollution, compliments and compares with my message.
Emotional
The ice could quite easily be symbolic material to the position people take on climate. Change and environmental problems such as plastic waste. Being either on board or complete rigid to the idea that there is a problem. In addition I think that we as a race are stuck like ice in momentum beyond us because society is going at such a fast pace. To go a day with out coming into contact with plastic if you want to eat or drink is near impossible. Even if you are making an effort there are days you can’t get out the door that organised and you either fast or fold.
Composition
The use of the ice allows me to solidify the materials, using more space around the found objects this semester allows more contemplation rather than chaos. The colour contrast of the ice next to the plastic also makes a lovely frame and brings your focus to the subject being discussed.
Complimentary The ice compliments to subject material, framing and allowing different angles to tell different stories. Using the flash making the price feel harsh and troublesome to using natural light to bringing a stillness. Then wetting the ice makes the works pop(literally, see video) and allows you to see it in an abstract form, frozen in mid air. The material was intentionally photographed with a endless background so there is no final or stop. Which relates to the ongoing amount of rubbish, then endless problem, the Unknown solution. Looking into nothing. The other reason is I because I wanted the viewer to focus on the subject being plastic and I didn’t want it to compete with anything also with in the frame.
Abstract
The ice and images photographed were taken with an abstract element in mind, the links from the usually circular straws (so something feels off) the nets with objects jutting out so there is a feeling of spilling over, the melting the meld products together which is how I see archeologists digging things up if we turn the climate crisis around. The colours combined with the materially of the ice the complete cleanliness and perfection next to these found objects to me create an abstract just in contrast alone.
Global warming
Is real, ice is melting, seas are rising, this is all preventable. Selecting ice was not originally for a direct line to global warming, however the reduction of waste, produce, methane gas from rubbish are all very relatable to ice and melting.
Space
Using the use in the gallery space will allow viewers to see the impact of ice front and centre. The flow will be a puddle, will they see there reflection, will their flash bounce off the ice when photographing, will they step in the water and be impacted or upset, will they start to be more careful around the water encase they slip, will they perhaps connect it to be careful of our planet. Will they correlate the melting with climate change, will they understand the linking of straws once they start to appear from the ice throughout the day. See blog on dictating the space. Artists like Kitty Kraus and Janine Antoni both utilising space with in their work.
Archeological
Will this be the only things we are digging up in the future, as all of this plastic is moving with the oceans currents around the world. I read an article that mentioned locating a yoghurt container that was forty years old. The article discussed the impact that if 40year old plastic is only just co.jng to the surface that there is millions of plastic pieces still to come.
During this process I am soon discovering how slippery ice is to work with, also how fantastic and alarming the sound are that isis makes when it comes into contact with different temperature
The decision has been made that I am going to be allowed to melt the ice in the space allocated to me, this is the TAEM gallery floor. I am happy about this because it was one of my original thoughts, however I was concerned about risk assessment.
Thoughts around projecting images have been investigated and dismissed, the concern has been that my images will not be given the best advantage to see the crisp detail in each image. So this idea will be shelved for now, but possibly pitching the ideas to a festival so crowds can walk through the works on a large scale.
After making a decision about ice blocks and melting, Boni Carncross sent me some infomation on another artists that attempts to dictate the space.
This also lead me to think of other artists that I have learned about during my degree that attempt to work the space around them, this post is a brief acknowledgment for the artists.
Re Kraus : “leaving only a residue of murky liquid pooled on the floor or trailing the gallery walls” Guggenheim, New York.
Janine Antoni, Loving Care, 1993, used black hair dye and slowly backed out of the gallery floor. Taking or commanding the space pushing the audience out as she performed.
Linda Benglis, Contraband, 1969, influenced by Pollock and she extended her own work from his action work to be famous for one of the first action “pour” artist. She was interested in the sense of gravitational pull the flat colour dense work created.
Hema Upadhyay, WHERE THE BEES SUCK THERE SUCK, 2016 engages the entire room’s space with waste. Upadhyay placing a back home in a gallery space suggestive of asking viewers to be aware of consumerism. After waste has left the owner.
Anthony Gormley, Asian Field, 2003, collaborated with over 300 people to create 35 thousand sculptures. Using food sorting silos, and car parks as spaces to install the work due the the magnitude. This has also been displayed in gallery settings, I find this work anxiety provoking due to the fragility and the push of repetition, also the I ability to move forward, through, around etc. Its an amazing way to dictate the space as an artist.
JANA CRUDER AND MATTHEW LAPENTA
I find these collaborators work wonderful, straws have been one of the biggest this has I have collected. I would pick five to ten a day with our even trying. Their work has a simple message, by enlarging the everyday objects to show everyday objects are damaging to the planet. These installations have traveled the globe and been exhibited since 2016, including additional collaboration with upstart innovation organisations that include scientists that can be inspired to come up with solutions, once creative artists such as LaPenta and Cruder bring these issues into a larger perspective.
https://www.biennaleofsydney.art/artists/lucas-ihlein-kim-williams/
Another collaboration is artists Dr Lucas Hlein and Dr Kim Williams. Who worked with the 2020 Biennale on focus towards waste consumption. However due to COVID the artists quickly adapted and supplies information on waste, plastics, micro plastic awareness and additional collaboration with scientists and Exhibition. It’s takes all different types of understanding, exposure and methods to brings awareness to artistic practices and it’s subject. I was drawn to this because I was collecting found objects throughout the semester (and previous one also).
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/war-on-waste
https://www.abc.net.au/ourfocus/waronwaste/
“War on Waste has triggered systems-wide changes, driving high-impact waste-reduction initiatives, models and practices across Australia.” Jenni Downes
Institute for Sustainable Futures
ABC and The University of Technology Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures. Developed a report on the impact of the ABC series War on Waste, this is another example of two disciplines working together, through facts, visual representation and evidence of impact when the problem is standing straight in front of you. This includes the encouragement of States following lead, for example Perth Australia banned plastic bags after the airing of the ABC series War on Waste.
So I’m feeling quite humble about this I have been in consultation with my head lecturer a few times, over the phone about exhibition ideas. Attending the University I have discovered that she has discussed with the other teaching staff that that they have allocated The taem gallery space for my work with three other students in the year. This really came as a shock, because of the space, the about the gallery being one of the more professional areas in the building and in addition to that being allowed to carry out one of my proposal ideas which I thought would never come to fruition due to rules.
I brought down some ice blocks to see how long they talked to melt, unfortunately the two hour drive a lot of them had melted in the car. With the air conditioning in the building that did slow them down a bit, and I think that the bigger ice blocks will be much thicker so they will melt slower.
I have decided to move a series of sculptures like the images I have already taken and or from my statements in my artists statement. E.g. bound, melded and linked. The pink shiny thing was a balloon I found and so filled it with Li led straws. Froze that and then stripped away the balloon putting it in one of the draws to make a larger cube.
The images have been printed and now I have to make a decision on the composition in the room. I have lost sleep over making this choice, after thousands of photos finally picking two was very difficult some of the reasons when into the final shape, the position of the way the photo was taken, the light, frame and composition opposite the (hopefully) beautiful blocks of ice.
this image was printed twice because of the border, and only had a 1 mil border so Tom decided to print it again, the images so striking putting them together I feel like it looks like the world, the oceans and the land scapes with this black tick on the top. I asked a couple of students their opinion and I had some interesting remarks. Such as cell like, embryonic, and Ying yang. I just find it really interesting that the dummies are green so much life to the image and they have so much meaning, because of the first thing that a baby puts into its mouth apart from a mother’s breast is a piece of plastic.
So the two final images are chosen because of their shape one is the straws which will Echo the sculpture because the sculpture being the same. I will have straws if I can gather enough of the dummies back together out of a lot of the other ice blocks that I’ve done. I could probably make that also, as I have one of the ice blocks cooking at the moment waiting for something to be put in.
Things still to be considered how am I going to hang them parallel with each other, landscape, or horizontal. the straws is not my strongest or favourite image however it really does well with the dummies.
Complete overwhelm comes to mind often during this semester. Over the past couple of weeks there’s been changes in regards to my presentation of work. Due to the time frame I am also dealing with an anniversary of a friend that committed suicide. and I’m also dealing with academic writing and delivery of essays for other subjects that I am struggling with. Living with mental health and attempting to finish the degree due to covid-19 offers struggles so other factors additional to that can cause stress.
I never realise how hard it was going to be making the right decisions, because of this I have driven down to the University to look through the possible areas that I can exhibit my work. I I’m also surprised at the number of organisations and companies that never reply to emails, I have attempted framing companies mirror companies manufacturing companies and machinery hire companies with zero, zilch Nada reply.
I also tried the overhead projector, with two plastic transparencies however the placement was limiting and it walked the image too much to become unidentifiable
Although this was discussed it was important for me to drive down and try them out myself so then I could let go of the idea and move forward with the ice sculpture and photographs. I was concerned about printing photographs because of the waste however I’ve already started thinking about places that I can donate them to.
4 part of my 390 proposal one of my ideas that was connected to plastic waste was creating Toytumpoles. This was sourcing an area with a flagpole, which I had done applied for permission to use the poll wish I had started to do (contact of council and downloaded forms). But on consultation with Boni, a decision has been made for me to shelf this idea. Because of the magnitude and the other body of work being too much for the time allocated. below are the three recycling bins full of toys that I had already collected, I’m actually embarrassed to say it was too easy to find that much waste that quickly (two months). I hope to go back to this idea in the future.
CAVA 390 