show build

All making finished and after a couple of days cleaning and painting the studio it was time to start putting show together. Discussions with tutor helped refine what goes in and how its displayed. We decided on the pots and we decided to display them on a couple of perspex shelves. I was keen to keep a plinth too - bit of a cliche with pots on it but that was the idea, elevating trash to art and a plinth in a gallery is good short hand...

measuring up

final shelves after hours of sanding saw marks off the edges

gold... a bit tacky but lovely

...and I managed to include my ceramic bin. Nicely hidden around the corner, unlabelled and unmarked. I hope visitors accidently add their own rubbish to it...

Everything submitted now so just have to sit back and wait for show opening...

pulling it together

Last few weeks of project, trying to tie up loose ends. Firstly the bin/print piece. Still not sure about this one but might suggest having it in the corner of the gallery and see how many people add their litter to it... The concept is strong but the execution not so good - think its the rough quality of my bin that is really letting it down.

I always intended to take my litter casts back to where I found their source material and re photograph them. I liked the idea of extending this to leaving behind the porcelain casts with a note asking people to take them home and post photos to a tumblr account of the pots in their new homes... taking recycling even further... This has had to remain a proposal for now as run out of time, something to investigate in the future.

A belgian margarine tub from the beach by Black Rock

a polystyrene coffee cup from The Level

taking casts further

Thinking about how to continue with project post-college I have been combining what I have learned about casting and packaging but opening up my self-imposed limitations to allow bought packaging from supermarkets rather than just found litter to act as source mould material..

display ideas

After waiting two weeks for enough sun (this is West Dorset...), it finally came out for two hours on Wednesday and I quickly made cyanotype print maps of Brighton covering the routes I walked when looking for litter. Prints scrunched and ready to throw in the bin.

This is the first bunch of earthenware casts I made from collected litter. Casts pretty crude but were first step in getting towards more refined porcelain versions. These have just been dipped in an unbelievably thick white glaze.... I expect some crawling (I would have thinned it right down but it was a big new batch at school)

A rather ugly ceramic bin made of coils of crank. Originally glazed grey but the pink clay showed through where glaze not thick enough (glazing seems to be a perennial problem for me). In the end I spray painted it white which is an improvement.

Put the three together...