W6 - Recycled Animals

Another group installation idea I have continues to work with recycled materials and uses the raised upper edge of VU St Alban’s evacuation area as a place to display the work. It would involve each member of the group constructing an animal and installing them to ‘graze’ in the grass.

I also like the idea of trying to reuse the materials I've already used in my individual installation. Partly to continue the cycle of reuse, partly because I'm just lazy (what you want me to think about, locate and transport a second load of materials?) and partly because 'forcing' myself to look and play more closely at a limited range of materials will stimulate creativtiy (there's nothing like telling me 'you can do anything' to send me into a non-productive panic).

Examples:
Scrap metal pet from http://keetsa.com/blog/eco-friendly/recycled-animals-no-not-real-ones/

Or this hansome chook from coloured plastic papers:
http://exclusiveroots.com/product-details/28/140/12915/Fair-Homeware/Ethical-Living/Henrys-Recycled-Plastic-Animals-Recycled-plastic-chicken.htm

Or these dogs, cats and horses from broken porcelain from Mary Engels:
http://www.trendhunter.com/link/animal-movement-junk-art-mary-engels-scultpures/2

Or these fantasy creatures from packing materials and colourful liquid product containing bottles by Caroline Adriaansche at: http://www.recyclart.org/2009/02/animals-by-carolien-adriaansche/

Steven Tan's blog has images of a Chinese-style dragon constructed form drink cans: http://steventan.org/blog/?cat=11

Previously, I’ve also included examples from Fiona Hall (also using containers) and Joshua Harris (inflated shopping bags).

And here's a how to video from TV lessons:

http://www.tvlesson.com/video/16051_how-to-recycle-plastic-into-art.html

W6 - Installations at NGV International

I went to look at two installations at the weekend:

Master Tetsunori Kawana (Japan) 2009: Five Elements Water, and
Bill Viola (USA) 2007: Ocean without a Shore

Both watery, but using very different ways to represent water and its meanings, the former being a vast bamboo and wire construction that I read as a frozen tsunami draining into NGV's restaurant and the latter an equally large-scale 90 minute video of the comings and goings of the dead through a veil of water that separates this mode of existence from the next.

Here is a quick walk around Five Elements Water using my Motorola phone:

Here are a couple of typical clips from Ocean Without a Shore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyMWn8ebItU

This one gives more of an impression of the audience experience as the amateur footage moves between the three screens each with their comings and goings of the dead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beMhIoeGQzQ&feature=related

I think both clips are amateur footage, so complete copyright infringements, but do give some sort of record for educational purposes.

W5 - Henry Welcome Up and Running

This week I installed the final bag of plastics to the mosaic, the newsaper flaps hanging from the rafters and covered the whole thing with black plastic. So, problems encountered:

• bits of plastic mosaic dropping off - adjusted my sticking technique to better support weight on wall


• newspaper flaps not really long enough for space - used masking tape to stick ends to rafters


• light coming in through rear plastic wall from window even with dust filters etc down there - stuffed whatever I could find in the studio between the plastic and window


• adjusting the polystrene cladding on the rafters meant the newspaper flaps would drop off - er, just lived with that one and did a lot of picking up!


• when I pulled the plastic over the construction I found I hadn't taken the thickness of the polystyrene into account so while I could tape and staple one side, there was a gap on the other - added more plastic from the large stockpile in the studio.


• wanted to test out the sound system, but the batteries (which I had tested) were dead and the spares I'd brought were the wrong size - I had to live with that one too!


• I wanted to shoot a little movie of the whole thing working together. This posed two problems (a) it was too dark to shoot film (surprise), so I used a little LED torch with the camera and gave the film a Blair Witch Project effect and, (b) I couldn't have the sound running as mentioned so I dropped in the sound file using Windows Movie Maker instead.

Apart from that the plan seems to have worked well. Here are some shots of the newspaper flaps:

And here is the video of Henry Wellcome's Legacy, part 1 up and running:

W 4 - Artist Statement

Henry Wellcome (1853-1936), who co-founded a multinational pharmaceutical company that mastered modern techniques of advertising and created AZT, also collected over one million diverse objects in his lifetime for a never realized museum of man. Wellcome '...really believed that you could read history, and you could read people's cultures, position on an evolutionary scale, from the kind of technologies they used' (Lisa O'Sullivan on Rear Vision, Radio National, 2009). In other words, he believed in the Enlightenment notion of Progress and that, inevitably, Western civilization was higher on that evolutionary scale than Other cultures from which he collected. My cube repositions Western civilisation on Wellcome’s evolutionary scale by showing just one consequence of its highly developed ability to make and sell.


In building the cube I wanted to completely consume the space I was allotted and force the viewer into participation by entering the work and engaging directly with it. In constructing the cube of undisguised rubbish, that is rubbish that is not transformed into a work of beauty, I am also refusing to engage with either aesthetics or craft. Many artists do transform recycled, reclaimed or natural materials into works that delight with their cleverness and expressivity (such as John Dahlsen, Fiona Hall, Yuken Teruya, MLSK and Joshua Allen Harris); but perhaps, unfortunately, the messages they evoke are opposite to their purpose. Instead, through my un-transformation, I am commenting upon fashionable ‘pop-ecology’ that pervades the media and our suburban lives. In so doing I expose my implication in systems of mass production, mass consumption and mass wastage. The cube simply declares, ‘this is my rubbish and you are standing in it, touching it, being touched by it, smelling it and hearing it’. Hopefully, the experience is uncomfortable reminding participants that human consumption is overwhelming us, but we continue to ignore its consequences.

This cube also replicates the "museum" and the "gallery" and destroys them. The modern museum and gallery are purpose-built buildings stripped of ornamentation, context and any function as living or work spaces. They exist to exhibit selected and arranged objects to the gaze of those seeking to fill their leisure-time. The selection and treatment of these objects by experts denotes their value as commodities and guides (controls and/or fixes) their meaning. However, in this “museum”, there is no light to see the venerated objects, the prohibitions against touching are lifted and there is no sense of reverent hush. As a result, the experience is not mediated or comfortable and there is no gift shop at the end.

Finally, it should be noted what is not in this cube. This cube represents only three weeks of SOME of my rubbish. There are no tins, glass, green waste and food scraps, grey or black water or non-recyclable waste that goes straight to landfill: I still took the easy and more pleasant route in choosing to what I wished to display.

W 4 - Plastic Mosaic begins

As per my schedule I have installed the remaining rafters and stapled the black plastic in place as the back wall of the cube. I think I may have to stuff the dust filters across the back - between the plastic and the window - as there's still quite a lot of light coming in. If that doesn't fit there's lots of black plastic and I'll stuff that in the space instead.

The rest of class I spent arranging and taping up my 1 bag of washed and cut recycled plastics to the two side walls. Here are the results so far:

It is quite clear already that it's impossible I'll have enough to cover all the surface area - I might be able to collect another 1 bag of plastics over the next two weeks - so I'll try to cover the surface from the top edge down to hip height as that'll be where most people will feel down to anyway. Plus - let's be honest - it'll make it more comfortable for me to install if I don't go below knee height.

W 5 - Callum Morton

Biography: Born in Canada, Morton studied architecture and fine arts in Melbourne and subsequently lectured in both as well as sculpture. He began exhibiting in 1989 and has shown work both throughout Australia's major institutions and the world over which includes representing Australia in the 2007 Venice Biennale and the Triennale India in 2004 at which he won a gold medal. Morton has been represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery for over a decade.

Work Type: Sculpture/Installation moving from models of buildings to buildings

Themes: The relationship between people and their built environment: private and public space, reality and illusion, interior and exterior.

Art Movement: Post-modern comment on the modernist dream of the city and its skyscrapers, he references actual architectural works and creates his own connundrum.

CVs:

Anna Schwartz Gallery, 'Callum Morton', viewed at http://www.annaschwartzgallery.com/sitebuilder/works/artists/8/morton,_callum_cv_2009_web.pdf?=m, on 20 August 2009.

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 'Callum Morton: Profile', Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, viewed at http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/27/Callum_Morton/profile/, on 20 August 2009.

Australia Council 2009, 'Artists: Callum Morton', OzArts, viewed at http://www.ozarts.com.au/artists/callum_morton?SQ_PAINT_LAYOUT_NAME=artist_about, on 24 August 2009.

(this site also links to 'similar' artists).

Works:

Anna Schwartz Gallery, 'Callum Morton', viewed at http://www.annaschwartzgallery.com/works/works?artist=8&c=m, on 20 August 2009.

Grotto, 2009:

Materials: Steel, polyurethane, concrete, plaster, fibreglass, glass, vinyl, wood, synthetic polymer paint, light and sound

Exhibiton: 2009-2014, commissioned by Fundament Foundation, Tilburg, The Netherlands

A commission in which Morton created an invisible pavillion in the centre of a Baroque-style garden. Grotto is a Baroque folly, a screen, a cave, a grave and a functional pavilion. By day, its glass creates an illusion of invisibility buy one can enter it finding a cave within that also functions as a cafe. By night the illlusion is reversed: the mirror becomes invisible and the grotto's shape is visible looking something like a burial mound. Morton's design both clashes with and is continuous with its Baroque surrounds.


Design, visiting:
Fundament Foundation 2009, Grotto, viewed at http://www.grotto09.nl/en/grotto/design, on 20 August 2009.


Photos:
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery 2009, 'Callum Morton: Grotto', Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, viewed at http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/27/Callum_Morton/1175/42581/, on 20 August 2009.


Habitat, 2003:

Materials: wood, acrylic paint, aluminium, sheet magnets, lights, sound74 × 110 × 130cm(each) six parts; plinth 90 x 648 x 150 cm

Exhibition: 2003 Melbourne International Festival, NGV

Influence: Moshe Safdie who built a much admired pavillon of 'little boxes' on Montreal's harbourside for the 1967 Expo in Canada whose theme included housing in a crowded world. note that this project went massively over-budget and, at the time, did not deliver the promised facilities.

Execution: 1:50 scale architectural model of Safdie's 'Habitat', with light and sound to suggest a day in the life of the housing complex.

Theme: Juxtaposition of a dream of community living is juxtaposed versus a diminutive scale and accelerated time frame, its inmates caught in a cycle of unending routine. Unfulfilled voyuerism.


Influence, Moshe Safdie:
CBC Digital Archives 2009, Moshe Safdie: Hero of Habitiat, viewed at http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/architecture/topics/1427/, on 24 august 2009.

Complexe de la cité du havre, Habitat 67, viewed at http://www.habitat67.com/origine_en_.html, on 24 August 2009.

Description:
The Ian Potter Centre NGCAustralia, Habitat: The Installation, viewed at http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/habitat/inst.shtml, on 20 August 2009.

National Gallery of Victoria 2003, Habitat: Callum Morton, viewed at http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/habitat/resources/habitatrb.pdf, on 20 August 2009.

Review article:
Taylor Alex 2003, 'Habitat: Callum Morton, ArtLink, Vol 23 No 3 , downloaded from
http://www.artlink.com.au/articles.cfm?id=2328, on 20 August 2009.


Vahalla, 2007:

Materials: Steel, aluminium, polystyrene, epoxy resin, silicon, marble, glass, wood, cement sheet, plasterboard, airconditioner, pvc pipe, corrugated plastic, acrylic paint, lights, sound.
465 × 1475 × 850 cm

Themes: A reflection of reality: his childhood home and memories, ruined. But also: contemporary instability. Inspired by war. Evidence of presence and destruction. Cinematic in its narrative: "like a ghost-ride in the theme park of my life"

Exhibition: 2007 Australian pavillion, Venice Beinnale (and now part of the 2009 Melbourne International Festival).

Description:http://www.melbournefestival.com.au/program/production?id=3581&idx=65&max=67/

Artist's Statement:
Australia Council 2007a, 'Callum Morton: Vahalla', Au3 Venice Biennale 2007, viewed at http://2007.australiavenicebiennale.com.au/content/view/38/121/, on 20 August 2009.

Floor Brochure:
Australia Council 2007b, 'Callum Morton: Vahalla', Au3 Venice Biennale 2007 , viewed on http://2007.australiavenicebiennale.com.au/images/stories/files/cm_floor_brochure.pdf, on 20 August 2009.

W4 - Henry Wellcome

Sir Henry Wellcome (1853-1936) was born in the American frontier, initially selling lemon juice as invisible ink, but died a wealthy knight of the British Realm. Wellcome co-founded a multinational pharmaceutical company that mastered modern techniques of advertising such as promotion, image and branding. He also funded pioneering medical research and his will provided for the creation of the Wellcome Trust now the largest charity in the UK, spending over £600 million a year on research to improve human and animal health (the Wellcome Trust, 2007). Brian Deer's work (1993) suggests that the drugs Wellcome's company pioneered, including AZT, are truly a triumph of marketing over function.

In additon, Wellcome collected over a million objects in his lifetime with no particular focus - just whatever curious and exotic things his international group of buyers took a fancy to - the majority of which remained in boxes uncatalogued and undisplayed. Much of the collection has been dispersed, but there is substantial library and collection of medical texts and objects in the 'Wellcome Building' in London as well as a collection in 'The Science Museum' whose oddness and diversity is highlighted by a short film installed with the collection called The Phantom Museum (Brooke, 2003) referring to the fact that Wellcome's dream of a museum of man was never realised.

The point of Wellcome's amateur archeology and collecting was that he '...really believed that you could read history, and you could read people's cultures, position on an evolutionary scale, from the kind of technologies they used' (Lisa O'Sullivan on Rear Vision, 2009). In other words, he believed in the Enlightenment notion of Progress and that, inevitably, Western civilisations were higher on the evolutionary scale than Other cultures. One might say, that with my cube, I'm showing just one consequence of Western civilisation's technology and therefore its true position on the evolutionary scale.



References:

Brooke Michael, 'Phantom Museum, The (2003)', BFI ScreenOnline, viewed at http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1201323/, on 19 August 2009.


Deer Brian 1993, Sir Henry Wellcome: thy will be done, viewed at http://briandeer.com/septrin/henry-wellcome.htm, on 19 August 2009.


Phillips Keri 2009, 'Regarding human remains', Rear Vision, Radio National, 12 August, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/rearvision/stories/2009/2646908.htm#transcript, downloaded 16 August 2009.


the Wellcome Trust 2007, History of Henry Wellcome, viewed at http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/History/index.htm, on 19 August 2009.

W4 - Artist Credit line

SARAH BERRY
HENRY WELLCOME'S LEGACY PART 1, 2009


Black cube: (2x2x2m): pine, black plastic, recycled furniture fibre, polystrene cladding, dust filters, torn and shredded papers, plastic food containers, carpet, staples, nails, trimmings from self-adhesive industrial foam.


Sound installation: MP3 player with battery-operated speakers, playing sounds manipulated using Audacity software of 1 water-filled bottle of Ayam Plum Sauce (210ml) hit with a teaspoon.

W4 - Materials and Methods

Materials:
Recyclable and non-recyclable plastics (cut) and papers (shredded and torn)


Reclaimed materials: trimmings from rolls of self-adhesive high density foam, dust filters, polysterene cladding, furniture fibre filling, heavy-duty plastic, carpet


7 Pine rafters (2m x 1 cm x 3cm)
2 chipboard walls
Staples
Gaffer Tape
Nails


1 bottle
MP3 player-recorder and mini-speakers
Audacity software



VIDEO: Meet My Bin



Methods:

CUBE:

Side walls created by adjusting 2 2x2m chipboard walls to 2m apart.

Back wall formed by window, bottom wall by concrete floor of studio.

Roof created from 7 Rafters - pre-drilled, spaced at 40cm and nailed to upper edge of chipboard walls.

Plastics - 3 bags - washed, cut and stuck to chipboard walls with self-adhesive foam

Torn newspaper - 1 bag, hung from rafters in curtains of different length

Polystrene and furniture fibre laid on rafters for sound insulation

Black plastic (6m x 2m) laid over cube, edges stapled and covered in gaffer tape to eliminate light. Front edge weighted down with rafter off-cuts.

Shredded papers - 12 bags - scattered on concrete floor of studio.


This should create a 2x2x2m cube in total darkness with a significantly different accoustic (muffled and oppressive) to the surrounding studio and which can be experienced by touch, sound and smell.


SOUND INSTALLATION:
Take one bottle from recycling and fill it with water.

Place MP3 recorder on the hollow wooden floor in the centre of a church hall

Place the bottle at a distance from the recorder and hit five times with a metal spoon.

Pour out 2 cm of water and repeat until the bottle is empty. Removing water raises the pitch.

Edit sound file in Audacity to create a 1 minute loopable installation.

Load back onto MP3 recorder and connect mini-speakers.

Play in cube.


Sound manipulation:
I removed non-impact sounds and linked sequences with silence. I then replicated the track three times and edited each track in different ways: repeated sounds, changed pitch, added bass, reversed sounds, added echo, fade in and out. Finally, I added different lengths of silence at the start of the track to complicate the rhythms.

Installed in the cube the resulting sound is intended to be at odds with the muffled insulated cube, at once reverbant but also oppressive.

W4-6 - To Do List

WEEK 4

Home:
Collect boxes/bags to store materials
Collect and wash plastics
Tear newspaper strips
Shred photocopy paper
Pre-drill 6 more rafters
Record bottle sounds.
Edit sounds in Audacity to create 2 minute soundtrack
Transport everything to VU - inc insulation materials

Studio:
Affix remaining 6 rafters
Begin plastic mosaic
Test materials (papers and plastics) to see 'how far they go in the space' and, therefore, how much more I'll need for the final week!
Try out insulation materials on cube's ceiling and back walls.


WEEK 5:
Be prepared to work Thursday afternoon in studio

Home:
Complete proposal
Make a copy of Artist's Statement and get it laminated.
Collect and prepare any more paper and plastics required
Add soundtrack to MP3 player and attach mini-speakers
Transport materials and include a TORCH and power for speakers!.

Studio:
Deliver Proposal
Complete mosaic
Install power and ensure it can be accessed!
Hang newspaper curtains
Add insulation to cube's back and ceiling
Drape plastic over cube.
Staple and tape edges.
Check for light elimination
Scatter shredded paper.

WEEK 6
Studio:
Bring a torch.
Set up MP3 player and speakers.
Affix Artist's Statement to outside of cube.
Disassemble everything and take for recycling.

W3 - Testing Materials

Today during class I tested some of my ideas about materials. I tried various 'sticking' methods to apply the plastic rubbish to the walls:

...and found that PVC glue was messy and gravity really interfered in the 'staying still in one spot while the glue dries' process! However, I have rolls from Reverse Garbage (not even sure what they are but they look like trimmings from a much larger roll) that are sticky and seem to bear the weight of the objects. I think throwing some some paper masking tape into the mix should complete the work. And to ease installation further, I really only need to tape objects from the top and it only needs to last a day!

I also put up the first 'rafters' on the top most edge of my studio cube. Unfortunately this pine is not recycled - but at least it is a sustainably grown material - but it will be recycled after this project! I got Bunnings to cut the wood to length (2m) and pre-drilled each end. This means all I had to do was adjust the distance between the walls until they were exactly 2m front and back and hammer a nail in on each end. Next week I'll add in the rest (maybe another 6).

Finally, I measured the heavy duty black plastic that came with the studio and which will form the back, rook and front of the cube. Happily I found one piece that had already been cut to 2m x 6m! I also found another piece which was 1m x 2m. This I decided to install on the left of the cube front to see if my materials worked. I wrapped the top end around the front rather and held it in place with staples. This way the plastic will hang straight under its own weight, but the wrapping means not all the weight goes through the staples leading to tearing. I stapled the left edge to the studio chip board wall and, for further light elimination, added a strip of plastic masking tape. Then I took offcuts from cutting the rafters to length and stapled them into the bottom edge of the plastic to hold it relatively taut against the ground. Once I lay the 2x6m sheet over the entire structure, this flap will form the entrance to the cube and prevent light from entering.
In this photo, you can also see that I've laid a piece of heavy-duty black carpet across the threshold of the cube (part of the materials liberated from the hard rubbish collection). I just wanted something to delineate the outside studio space from the inside of the cube (sort of introducing it) as well as giving somewhere for people to remove their shoes if they want to.

W3 - Evolution of the Cube

I done a lot of thinking this week about what this cube is about and, therefore, what I make it from. I've considered covering the floor in sock balls and stapling socks on the walls which I could source from Savers - but that's a lot of socks and, thus, still a relatively expensive option and would mean a lot of stapling and very sore joints. I've also considered various sorts of foam and investigated sites such as Clark Rubber where I found a product called Peeled Foam. This refers to thin sheets of foam that manufacturers use to wrap all sorts of objects which I could either buy a roll of, find the dumpsters of suitable retailers or contact a likely local organisation (perhaps Mobil, VU, Kmart) and ask if I could collect materials from their delivery department. This began to seem like a lot of work.

Finally, given the assignment's time constraints, my desire not to spend much and the fact it'll be pitch black inside I think my criteria for deciding on materials are:

- softness and safety for audience entering the cube environment
- give an insulating and muffling effect
- be diversely tactile
- offer maximum impact into the space and upon the audience
- quick to de/install a lot of whatever it is
- easy to install: the less smelly chemicals and repetitive motion installation takes, the better
- easy to source a lot of whatever it is without lots of driving, phoning or Internet searching
- easy to transport: it fits in my economic little car
- cheap
- recyclable

Conclusion:
Rubbish, specifically, my rubbish. Thus, part of the meaning of the work becomes my contribution to landfill and a record of my consumption.

This ties in with the sort of installation work I've been looking at on the Internet and the hard rubbish I liberated last week! And, in light of the work I've looked at, most of it transform rubbish into something beautiful - no more so that Miwa K's PET bottle jelly fish - and, I don't think that's where I want to go. Rather, I want to engage other senses than merely seeing, and make the audience part of the installation, but disorientation rather than beauty is the goal becasue I don't want people to love their rubbish! Other artists I've checked out also variously use the power of art techniques to hide both construction and origin of their materials, while other do not. I don't want to transform rubbish into anything but rubbish - which includes truth in the title as well - and once the installation is done, everything will be recycled.

Possible Titles:
A Guilty Record of My Consumption. Three Weeks of Rubbish Collection and the Sound of One Bottle. Landfill Cube. Landfill Sensorium.

Floor:
A deep and uneven layer of shredded used photocopy paper from my printer (I have a recycled industrial shredder).

Hanging from ceiling 'rafters':
Curtains made up of strips torn from my broadsheet newspaper (ie, a large newspaper so the strip can be hung over the rafter and not attached at all).

Walls:
A tactile mosaic built up of plastic waste that I collect (and wash!) over 3 weeks.

Sound installation:
Impact sounds on hard rubbish eg a bottle, recorded in a tall reverberant room and manipulated using Audacity. This will be in complete contrast to the muffled cube environment and - I'm hoping - quite disconcerting.

W3 - Sources of Recycled Materials

Reverse Garbage (http://www.reversegarbage.org.au/), 8/142 Addison Rd., Marrickville,Sydney NSW 2204 Ph: (02) 9569 3132 or Fax: (02) 9560 9765Drop in, from Mon - Sat, 9am - 5pm .

- see website for huge and changing variety of items available. Can Choose a 65L bag of items for $25 (but you need to add delivery of $30 as well).

Reverse Garbage Truck Inc., 1A Wingfield Street, FootscrayVIC 3011 Ph: (03) 9687 3484 or Fax: (03) 0687 3280

Junk Busters, 535 Nurigong st., Albury NSW 2640Ph/Fax: (02) 6041 4777

Pp.63-4 of EcoRecycle's 1997 'Becoming WasteWise' at http://www.ecorecycle.sustainability.vic.gov.au/resources/documents/Becoming_Waste_Wise.pdf contains a list of commercial organisations involved iin recycling paper, concrete, aluminium etc.
AND a more uo-to-date search engine for similar companies http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/www/html/1679-waste-wise-shopping-guide.asp

Some councils have Resource Recovery Centres at their landfills sites. Unlikley to have fabrics, papers and packing type materials, but everyhing else imaginable:

Bolinda Road, Campbellfield (Melway 7:H8)Ph: 9359 3813Fax: 9357 4154, opening times: 8.00am - 4.00pm (7 days)

Riddell Road, Sunbury (Melway 361:D8)Ph: 9744 2974Fax: 9740 9322, opening times: 10.00am - 4.00pm (7 days)

Savers (and other ops shops: St Vinnies', Salvos) - http://www.savers.com.au/ - are great sources of fabrics.

Clark Rubber for foams and plastics - http://www.clarkrubber.com.au/products-a-services/foam/foam-memory-foam-cut-foam/acoustic-foam-speciality-foam.html#peeled-foam

In addition: collect rubbish from me, neighbours, class, street hard rubbish collection, street dumpsters, mall dumpsters, organisation delivery departments, or decide to collect whatever appears at a specific location over a specific time... (I've started seeing 'useful' things caught in the weeds on the sides of the freeway and strewn across the St Albans Campus).

Source of statistics on plastic bag use:
http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/www/html/2713-use-less-plastic-shopping-bags.asp

W3 - Installation art: but what is it?

There are lots of definitions.

A good start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Installation_art including definitions, hostorical content and listing links to contemporary artists and art spaces.

This definition from the Californian State Board of Education , seems somewhat limited: 'The hanging of ordinary objects on museum walls or the combining of found objects to create something completely new. Later, installation art was extended to include art as a concept. '

From arttowngifts.com (ie a US art shop) comes this version: "Art works of various media, such as painting, sculpture, and projected images that fill a certain space and are used to create an idea or story for the viewer.'

From a more useful glossary (Notebook: The Development of a Context for Understanding Visual Art References and Resources.): 'A rather loose term for works that appeared in the 1970s in which artists assembled elements of various materials in specific gallery or museum situations, intending to establish an environment rather than an isolated, single work of art. ' (http://www.noteaccess.com/APPROACHES/AshtonG.htm)

From the TATE Modern: 'Term used to describe mixed-media art works which occupy an entire room or gallery space and into which usually the spectator can enter...'

Eye On Art (http://www.eyeconart.net/history/postmodern.htm): 'An installation presents a visualization of 3-dimensionallity, in real time and space. It can include 2-dimensional mediums (painting, drawing, photography, etc), but a 3-dimensional element is also necessary for the interaction of the viewer into the installation space. Video and electronic media are used frequently. Installation art is often conceptual in nature. That is, the emphasis is more on ideas than on the creation of unique objects. For this reason, installation art frequently incorporates an assembly of "ready made" (manufactured) objects instead of focusing on the craftsmanship of the artist.' and goes on to give a diverse range of examples.

There are plenty more definitions, but the common elements seem to be: 3-dimensions, manipulation of space, use of space to affect viewer, conveying an idea, ordinary objects either presented as is, carefully reworked or individually crafted.

W3 - What materials can you use in installation art?

Apparently anything. This version of Stonehenge was created from recycled portaloos:

Banksy 2007, installed in the Sacred Space field in Glastonbury, downloaded from http://writingaboutmyworld.blogspot.com/2007/06/recycled-art.html on 12 August 2009

W3 - more recycled art with a focus on plastic bags

John Dahlsen (http://www.johndahlsen.com/) calls himself an 'Environmental Artist' constructing 'paintings' from plastic bags (such as 'Green Plastic Bags' above) which he sells as very large prints, as well as totems of rope, bottles or foam

(see http://www.johndahlsen.com/detail_totem/Rope&plastotem.html)

and installations featuring massive highly coloured photos of rubbish above a mimicking pile of rubbish (see http://www.johndahlsen.com/detail_installation_art/multi_colour_install.html). He hopes his work goes out with an environmental message - obviously - but they also come with a harmony of form and colour than remains true to its materials: that the installation above was made of plastic bags is in no way hidden.

Here are plastic bags used in alight installation infront of Madrid's Prado from ttp://www.inhabitat.com/2009/04/04/eco-art-plastic-bag-light-garden/

In early March 2009, art group Luzinterruptus created “A Cloud of Bags Visit the Prado” from 80 bags inflated by the wind.

Poor photos, but an interesting idea: shelters constructed of sewn plastic bags
http://www.bruceburris.com/BURRIS/MWO/dunahoo.htm and http://www.bruceburris.com/BURRIS/MWO/dun_transyl.html

And, just to vary this survey of plastic bag art, here is some beautiful work that immediately evoked a tear in my eye using toilet rolls from Yuken Teruya:

For more see this excellent Design Blog http://artstyleonline.com/paper-art/real-beauty-is-simple/#more-1800

W2 - installation artist, Fiona Hall

Emerging in the 1970s initially as a photographer, Fiona Hall has shown how '...ordinary substances are transformed into extraordinary new presences' (Hoffie, 2005) in order to re/explore her perennial themes of 'interrelationships of life and death, beauty and violence' (ibid) or, as the Australian Government Culture Portal (2008) terms it, 'the relationship between nature and culture'. In this Sydney-born Hall was undoubtedly influenced by her scientist-mother, the bushland-setting of the family home and her extensive studies and travels overseas (ibid).

Ewington (cited in Hoffie, 2005), describes how in a recent retrospective (for example at Queensland Art Gallery and Christchurch Art Gallery 2008), Hall's work can be seen to have moved from representing connections between objects, materials and contexts to generating connections through her 'restless patterning'. Thus, Hall moved from documentary-style photos into maniplated images and, from the mid-1980's, into sculpture often using shredded metal, bank notes and beadwork to create botanical and faunal 'specimens' (real, imagined, endangered and/or extinct) arranged in museum-style cases in order to comment upon consumerism and its impact upon the natural world (as well as us).

Possibly these themes and connections are explemified by Hall's well-known Paradisus Terestris, 1989-90, her 'erotic sardine can[s]' (Australian Government, 2008): where peeled back cans reveal an isolated human body part out of which grows a leafy plant. Such works refer to such interconnected ideas as natural diversity, colonialism (such as the plants gathered by European explorers) and consequent exoticism, consumerism and human isolation and commodification. Here a humble tin - an unregarded and disposable object for food storage - is transformed into a fragile and vocal, work of beauty. Such works are clearly informed by Hall's studies into European literature, particularly its notions of good/evil and heaven/hell (Australian Government, 2008). This series can be viewed at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery website along with a comprehensive exhibition listing and visual chronology of Hall's extensive work.

In a similar vein, Mourning Chorus (2007-8), with its play on words is a more recent series of scultpures of imagined extinct birds composed of resin beaks applied to disposable plastic contrainers such as detergent bottles (MCA, 2008). Surely such work, reusing the thrown away, can be seen as owing much to both the Pop Art (1960-70s, USA) movement that raised ordinary consumables to iconic status while its handcrafted nature relates it to the Arts and Crafts Movement (mid-1800s, UK) that rebelled against mass-produced goods (Australian Government 2009).

References
Australian Government 2008 (last update 17 July), 'Fiona Hall', Australia's Culture Portal, http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/fionahall/, viewed on 6 August 2009.

Australian Government 2009 (last update 5 August), 'The Arts and Crafts movement in Australia', Australia's Culture Portal, http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/artsandcrafts/, viewed on 6 August 2009.

Churcher Betty 2006,
'Fiona Hall', Hidden Treasures, http://dl.screenaustralia.gov.au/module/849/, viewed on 6 August 2009.

Hall Fiona, 'Paradisus Terestris, 1989-90', Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/17/Fiona_Hall/87/, viewed on 6 August 2009.

Hoffie Pat 2005, 'The Art of Fiona Hall', Artlink, http://www.artlink.com.au/articles.cfm?id=2280, viewed on 6 August 2009.

Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney 2008, Fiona Hall: Force Field, Education Kit, http://www.mca.com.au/general/Fiona%20Hall%20Force%20Field%20Education%20Kit.pdf, viewed on 6 August 2009.

W2 - Initial ideas about collaborative installation

For some reason I've felt far freer in imagining what might be done (even if it is not within my grasp either technically, nor within the realms of what VU considers to be safe and acceptable) and, possibly, this is to do with the fact that this installation is further off and will not be my decision alone.

I'm very conscious that VU St Albans campus is both filled with with structures and natural elements to which installations could be added in order to trasform them and that it is a very windy place. The latter could be both a severe limiting factor, or an element one could feature in the design of the work.

Here are three ideas:

(1)

Site: 'eagle' or angle' structure on the front of buildings 7 and 8

Installation: curtains of rubbish

Influence: Happy Happy Plastic Stadium, 2008, Seoul. Designed by Choi Jeonghwa. The photo was downloaded from DesignSpotter on 12 August 2009.


The work is made from 1.7 million pieces of plastic rubbish collected by residents, 3600 people transformed the Jamsil Sports Complex into an enormous eco art installation. The work was presented for the Seoul Design Olympiad 2008






(2)
Site: dried up fountain in centre of campus


Install: fill up fountain basin with shredded blue paper, blue plastic bags, blue plastic bottles and create an arch over it from which hang flags, mobiles or kite structure also made from rubbish. I'd love to incorporate those little plastic soy fish that come with sushi, but the scale is too small.


Influence: the eco art with a point of MLSK. They collect particular numbers of objects to represent statistics for consumption of the featured object. This one features bottled water bottles transformed into mobiles and hung off trees:
Go to http://www.notesondesign.net/inspiration/design/mslk’s-watershed-project-installed-on-governor’s-island/ for furher details on installation with other rubbish items such as plastic bags.


(3)
Site: avenue of gum trees between carparks of buildings 1 and 2.
Installation: strings of kites made of plastic bags

Influence: Miwa Koizma, miwa.metm.org who, amongst other diverse projects has created delicate sea creatures from PET bottles and here's her recipe for making plastic bag kites (more like wind socks): http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/own-this-city/28857/make-plastic-bag-kites, (part of a project by Miwa Koizma)

W2 - Initial ideas about individual installation

My first ideas were about black and death stimulated by finding a pile of heavy black plastic in the studio and by hearing about on-line memorials on Radio National as I was driving in, and then recalling an art exhibition about death that I visited in Dresden at its Hygeine Museum and a recent Australian book on the sociology of death and dying.

This conjured ideas about who owns the dead, the fetishisation of corpses by funeral parlours, who tells, edits, embellishes or changes 'their' story. I envisaged constructing a fake memorial, a blog on death and memory, video of media images of the dead, collection of Warhol-like images of people in coffins. I even had a few possible titles: 'Consolations' or 'Translation to Memory' or 'Pornography of the Corpse'. I still think this sound create...but it quickly seemed unlikely to be doable in the time avaialable.

Having been told there was about to be a hard rubbish collection in St Albans, I left the campus and drove around the area for an hour and 'liberated' a variety of objects that interested me. Here there are (cat not included):




As a result of sitting with these objects for a few days, I completed revised my idea to turning the studio space into a black cube into which I put some things that had to be felt and something that had to be listened to. Another possible title presented itself: 'Anechoic Sensorium'! Then I thought it might be effective if there was a big contrast between the feeling of the confined cube and a more echoey recording. I even recorded part of the warm-up of one of my choirs which rehearses in a hall with a high ceiling.

W1 - My Studio Space

This is my studio space in Building 1C's installation studio. I took this photo with my Motorola phone in which, I've recently discovered, one can actually adjust the exposure (hence the blueness) and the magnification. The space available to me is a 2m x 2m x 2m cube with moveable chipboard walls. I've since removed the dirty old Mac (oo er! but I mean as too much trouble), but kept the metres and metres of heavy duty black plastic which I found in the space.

I have to say that my first reaction in being let loose in the studio was (1) panic - what can I make mine immediately and will I get what I want, and (2) panic - what on earth should I do and am I technically capable of doing it, and (3) panic - this is not a comfortable space - it is dirty and cold and set my asthma off immediately and people will be creating more dust and chemical smells.

My secondary reactions were: (1) frustration - I want to start this now, but there doesn't seem to be anything happening and, (2) derision - we've just had an OHS briefing and the first thing we have to do is shift very heavy chipboard walls that will only stand in their supports if you bash them with another support.

So, let's use all of that.