THE ISSUE OF WASTE HAS COME TO A HEAD IN BISLEY

The Residents of Bisley prepare for Zero Waste Week.
6 Households donate rubbish to artist in residence.
Artist makes work.

TITLE: THE ISSUE OF WASTE HAS COME TO A HEAD IN BISLEY
WHEN: ZERO WASTE WEEK 26th Jan - 1st Feb
WHERE: THE CLUB HOUSE, Van Der Breen St, BISLEY, Glos, GL6
EVENT: END OF RESIDENCY/Z-WW 31ST 4-7PM

I am currently working with villagers on a month long residency in Bisley - THE flagship Zero Waste Village in Gloucestershire County, winner of Gloucestershire’s Village of the Year Award Environment Section in 2008.

This residency will generate new work using the rubbish of the local residents as the raw material. It becomes a simulation of an exchange or transformation emulating the natural cycle of zero waste.

The process will include photography, written documentation, collection and storage of rubbish generated over the month.

I have already collected some Christmas packaging and wrapping paper from residents and begun collecting iron at a local business (The Green Shop - thank you). I will use these materials for collaging and sculpting. The iron will be used later to create a permanent installation, possibly at the site of the residency. I am hopeful that over the course of the residency people will seek me out, at the Club House, stay for a cup of tea by the fire and discuss the whole zero waste idea.

The documentation generated through these processes will become a book-work, the sculptures will become iron as a final act of transformation.

These iron works will be returned to the villagers as an embodiment of this process. A manifestation of the mineral base from which our modern lives are derived.

We can profile people through their rubbish. I’d like to extend this idea of profiling into portraiture. It could be read as a pseudo-forensic exercise to define how a person might be represented by what they have discarded. Something of the original person is left as a trace on what is unwanted.

Archaeologists use this technique to understand the life of former settlements. The Police use the technique to gain insights into to a subject and criminals to obtain personal information. I want to use it to focus attention on the material itself, our relationship with it and how we mange it as a resource.

By focusing on this detritus it’s interesting how an apparently benign object like an empty cooking oil bottle becomes politicized. Issues of economics, land-use, mineral resources and pollution all come into focus

Closing Event 31st Jan 4-7pm
Exhibition ends 1st Feb

Zero Waste Week:
http://www.bisley-with-lypiatt.gov.uk/
http://myzerowaste.com
http://www.recycleforgloucestershire.com/zerowastechallenge/

Gavin McClafferty: Residency

Kuildoosh in New York

A new series of paintings by Matt Curtis are currently being exhibited at Hobbs House bakery, Nailsworth.

You can expect to be transported to a place where murky forests, floating islands and strange creatures share a world similar to a memory plucked from the edge of consciousness. Matt is keen to convey a dream like quality in his work by using a pallet of lush greens and washes of delicate blues inspired by his many trips to Canada where the wild expansive spaces and deep, vibrant colours have become prominent inspiration for his most recent work.

The exhibition will run untill the 4th of December.

Creativity inspired by dystopia
By Matty Airey

FOUR young artists who all attended Stroud Art College at the turn of the millennium return to the area with a selection of new and exciting paintings in an exhibition entitled Soma - Paintings from the Savage Mind.

The title for the show is inspired by Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World. Soma is the wonder drug of the future that the government prescribes to its citizens to keep them in a constant state of bliss.

The savage is a character born outside the realms of state control and becomes the seed of dissent in this dystopian image of the future.
advertisement

“The work wasn’t inspired by the book, more like the title fitted the artwork,” said artist Matt Curtis, who’s hosting the exhibition in his studio.

“That book was written such a long time ago, but the themes and concerns seem to be as relevant to our situation now as ever. One theme that interests me is the paranoia of state control and how we as young people react to that.

“I wanted to put on a show of work by young people from Stroud. There’s not many 20 to mid 30 year old artists here. There’s black hole, people go off to art college and university and they disappear,” said Matt.

“All of us in this show went to Stroud College in 2000/2001and did our foundations together. It’s nice to bring everyone back. A lot of us haven’t had artwork in the same room as each other since then.

“I’m still in Stroud and Adam is coming back. Alex is at the Royal Academy at the moment and Laurence is doing really well in London. Damien Hirst bought a piece of his work, and he’s been generating a lot of interest.

“The exhibition is in my studio, which is an old industrial unit and used to be a mechanics’ spray area. It’s got a really nice feel.”

The artists exhibiting are Alex Crocker, Adam Crossland, Laurence Owen and Matt Curtis at Unit 4 Gallery, Farrs Lane, off Nelson Street, Wednesday - Saturday, 11am to 5pm. The exhibition runs until June 30.

poster

private view Friday 6th June

An exhibition of paintings by Alex Crocker, Laurence Owen, Matthew Curtis and Adam Crosland.

This group of young artists all attended Stroud art college around the turn of the century. Now they return to Stroud with a selection of new and exciting paintings in an exhibition entitled Soma – painting from the savage mind. The title for the show is inspired by Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World. Soma is the wonder drug of the future that the government prescribes to its citizens to keep them in a constant state of bliss. The savage is a character born outside the realms of state control and becomes the seed of dissent in this dystopian image of the future.