down by the water front

Being Human : : Its a Group Thing

Heard of Frome, Somerset?. It's a place you should !....I hadnt until this week. 

The Beinghuman Collective have found the perfect place to create.

Its a great and vibrant little town with a West Country pace, just 2 hours from London. 

The space has a great feel because of this,

but perhaps it is also more to do with the people involved.... 

And this week, not for the first time! The Beinghuman Collective space

has become The Beinghuman Residency and Exhibition.

This though is no ordinary residency but a collaboration of artists

hither to unknown to each other. 

Brought together through the dynamic direction of Gaynor O'Flynn. 

A widely travelled artist herself,

these are people she has more often than not met personally.

This time drawing artists from places like Siberia Russia, Greece and the US

with a Louisville guy now based in France. A local Belgian living in Frome

and artists from around the UK.

All converging here for this event during the first week in June.

Each artist bringing their own, and obviously unique creativity

has meant the diversity has proved to be a huge catalyst. 

The endeavours created have resulted in a thought provoking, fun and fascinating exhibition.

The event itself taking place on Saturday 8th in The Beinghuman Wharehouse at 7pm 

Every artist has a created, within their own direction, 

an expansion on the inherent dynamics present within the group. Interesting stuff! 

Cradle to Grave : Plastics, Resins, Infinity and Industry

 

Getting the Balance Right.

A few years ago I went to a discussion about sustainable fashion, one of the speakers was Katherine Hamnett. Back then the organic cotton manufacturing industry was in all sorts of conundrums about authenticity; from growing the cotton to its destination of shop rail; from training to be a designer to retail ethics. Katherine made it clear that the only way she could guarantee a truly fair trade organic product was to oversee the entire process herself.

Katherine being who she is was able to do this. She sold her successful business and started E.Hamnett. She purchased a farm in India and hired local staff. She booked containers to carry the cotton, uncontaminated, to a factory which she also owned in the UK where the garments were then made up. And so receiving a genuine label of authenticity, rather than a nod in the direction of one. The labelling of which many companies were then using more than generously in their favour.

The details of these issues I had already covered at the time. But this week I found myself re-thinking this ethical sustainability issue in a completely different light.

Sand : Water Under the Sand  twin : painting and sculpture

I had decided I wanted to create a piece of work connected to my Sand painting with a piece about dessert storms. I'd collected Saharan sand from one such storm while in Southern Spain. And to do this what better way than suspend it in clear resin. To be able see the particles free floating encapsulated in a resin cube. To use plastic was always my intention, I use all kinds of organic, in-organic and synthetic products in my works. So after researching on the web for the best possible clarity of resin-for-purpose I clicked and bought.

It arrived. It had Skull and Cross Bones on the labelling.

I visited my old University for advice, and not surprisingly had a re-think about the product I was about to use.

While I was in Spain I had also written my thoughts on plastic and landfill in general. But this particular product made me think again. I then started to look into using a resin which was more eco-friendly but was surprised at my results.

Rather than using a Petrochemical sourced resin I was now looking at a Bio-resin sourced from vegetable matter.

The biodegradable results were though as far from eco-friendly as they initially sounded. Both types of resin start in liquid form and both require a toxic “hardener” to be added. You can break the whole process down into three different categories.

 

The Source :

Petro – from fossil fuel – not sustainable in the long run hence recycling.

Bio – from vegetable matter like corn oil – dubiously sustainable in its demand-requirement of land clearance in order to grow. Along with pesticide usage, the pesticides themselves being toxic. The more we switch to bio-plastics the more demand.

 

The Process :

Both are either toxic (as with Petro) or hazardous because of use of the hardener, the Bio less so.          

 

The End Result :

Recycling plants are industrial composting machines which heat the plastics and are a sustainable alternative to just dumping in landfill or oceans. These have been set up to primarily deal with Petro and are certainly not dealing with the vast majority of plastics produced of whatever denomination. However when a plastic does reach the plant a conundrum becomes apparent not least in abuse of actually labelling how degradable a product is.

In order to degrade quickly Petro has to be heated in the compost this then turns it into a “humus” like substance. Bio on the other hand does not respond to this composting process in the same way so even though it can be argued it has been composted it has not actually been fully degraded. It does on the other hand retain sustainable Carbon 14 which replenishes, Petro does not.

 

I had always seen the plastics industry as a simple case of Recycle, whereas actually it is far more complicated than that. Even the Standards Organizations cannot decide the exact labelling criteria (see below).

 

Katherine’s talk about cotton made me think a bit more about the plastics industry. And I am only throwing this open as an idea as this may be a little too simplistic to apply.

But at what stage does a manufacturer leave the responsibility of process? when it has been sold onto the supplier? and in turn with them onto the customer?. Governments and (true) industry have set up recycling plants. But maybe we need to see a Cradle to Grave approach to producing whereby the cost of disposing and recycling is an upfront cost of production in the first place. Unpopular sure, more expensive yes.

As an idea it would place the onus wholly onto those involved in the manufacturing process. The initiators in the chain of demand. No hiding or at least no putting on a commercial face-saving act with the fickle use of labelling.

 

A commitment from start to end of a products life.

 

When I was a child I saw no end to infinity – the world was huge the oceans vast. This is not so today. Aside from the vortex of plastic in the oceans the semi-degraded particles are now the size of plankton and are well and truly absorbed into the food chain. The dust and sand storms carry these same tiny plastic particles in the air. We are it seems surrounded by our own detritus of plastic – a massive industry that has grown around us and is engulfing.

I realised this week with a clarity I had not felt before that this is not just about a plastic shopping bag, a bottle of cola, eco friendly rhetoric or nods in the ethical direction. It’s not even about a dwindling fossil fuel industry. The sheer scale and toxicity of our use of plastic is mind boggling –literally everything that can be is made from the stuff.

 

I have made the choice to use a bio-resin as eco-friendly as possible for this piece – but I am now aware that one day the plastic produced – unless recycled Fully may well end up back in the Sahara or some other arid place devoid of top soil ready to be whipped up into a dust storm only to be dumped many miles away (and yes very probably in a town near you) and ingested by some poor unsuspecting person.

 

 

 

 

Check this animated Sand and Dust Storm forcast for the next 7 days from the Turkish Met Office

http://www.mgm.gov.tr/en-US/forecast-sds.aspx?s=69&t=a&b=eu&c=conc&y=

 

 

Explanation of Bio-degradable standards from a Wikipedia article on Bio-Plastics

Withdrawal of ASTM D 6002

In January 2011, the ASTM withdrew standard ASTM D 6002, which is what provided plastic manufacturers with the legal credibility to label a plastic as compostable. Its description is as follows:

"This guide covered suggested criteria, procedures, and a general approach to establish the compostability of environmentally degradable plastics."^[36]

The ASTM has yet to replace this standard.

Biobased – ASTM D6866

The ASTM D6866 method has been developed to certify the biologically derived content of bioplastics. Cosmic rays colliding with the atmosphere mean that some of the carbon is the radioactive isotope carbon-14. CO₂ from the atmosphere is used by plants in photosynthesis, so new plant material will contain both carbon-14 and carbon-12. Under the right conditions, and over geological timescales, the remains of living organisms can be transformed into fossil fuels. After ~100,000 years all the carbon-14 present in the original organic material will have undergone radioactive decay leaving only carbon-12. A product made from biomass will have a relatively high level of carbon-14, while a product made from petrochemicals will have no carbon-14. The percentage of renewable carbon in a material (solid or liquid) can be measured with an accelerator mass spectrometer.

There is an important difference between biodegradability and biobased content. A bioplastic such as high density polyethylene (HDPE) can be 100% biobased (i.e. contain 100% renewable carbon), yet be non-biodegradable. These bioplastics such HDPE play nonetheless an important role in greenhouse gas abatement, particularly when they are combusted for energy production. The biobased component of these bioplastics is considered carbon-neutral since their origin is from biomass.

Anaerobic biodegradability – ASTM D5511-02 and ASTM D5526

The ASTM D5511-12 and ASTM D5526-12 are testing methods that comply with international standards such as the ISO DIS 15985 for the biodegradability of plastic.

 

 

 

Hyperallergic's Discussion on Tumblr, Social Media Platforms and Art

 

 

This is well worth a listen.

Hyperallergic's discussion held Saturday 9th March in Brooklyn streamed via the link below.

Running at 2 hours 30min - is something to perhaps take in short bites. On the subject of art and the use of new communication technology platforms. The views may, on the surface somtimes seem to be going over "things we had already thought about". The overall picture though, is far from that!.      

 

About

"Hyperallergic and Tumblr have joined forces to present “The World’s First Tumblr Art Symposium.” This project, which is part discussion and part exhibition, explores the fast-evolving artistic landscape of Tumblr, one of the world’s leading social media and blogging platforms. “Over the last few years, artists have been gravitating to Tumblr as an open and welcoming platform for artists and the art community,” says Hrag Vartanian, editor-in-chief of the Brooklyn-based art blogazine Hyperallergic. “The types of art projects being created on Tumblr are diverse and growing by the day, so we felt it was time to have a discussion about the art community on Tumblr and how they are impacting art making today.” “This is an exciting context for art on Tumblr,” says Tumblr Arts Evangelist Annie Werner. “What was once floating out into the ether is now constructed in an official, curatorial format. It’s an amazing experience for artists using the platform as a medium — we hope to see only more of it.” The one-day event on Saturday, March 9, which coincides with Armory Arts Week in New York, will feature an exhibition and function as a forum for work to be discussed, shared, liked, uploaded, and critiqued."

 

        

 

take time also to link to the essays on the subject at the bottom of this article...  

http://hyperallergic.com/tumblrart/

 

 

Alex Pain :: Erratics

 

 

“Erratics are boulders or rocks lifted, transported and deposited to an unfamiliar environment, far from their original location, by glacial movement”.

 

I’d seen Alex Pain’s work earlier in the year at the opening of Two Queens new gallery space in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter.

Back then I was immediately struck by his subtle use of materials, and the ways he managed to subvert their actual meaning alongside their physical presence.  

Take Truncated Spur for example with its ramp like form, corroded copper rods and concrete solidity offering a time worn and rigid permanence. Made from jablite with purposely corroded patinated copper rods.

 

Truncated Spur and Bergers : 2011

Close inspection of Alex’s work belies an immediate assumption.

 

As with his four new pieces showing at Nottingham Castle’s Open 2012.

Placed in the middle floor space amongst the walls of salon style Old Masters. They have a presence that neither intrudes on nor excludes the surrounding work. They just are …very much Alex Pains art.

Order Emerging From Chaos Or Architecture Reclaimed By Nature : Foam, Jablite, Brass 2012

 

The four immediately strike you as a whole, a connection of an idea of form and structure which travels through his art.

Alex's use of foam and jablite (polystyrene insulation material) give an overall sense of topsy turvy weightlessness to the pieces.
Especially from the suspended Order Emerging From Chaos, Or Architecture Reclaimed By Nature.

Although rough hewn with a stained-like sliced and hacked exterior, it still suggests a softness through its recognisable natural foam state. The application gives an idea of another more rugged terrain, of a rock face for example. And gazing into its interior more closely you are also struck, by regimented sometimes gleaming, metal razor teeth. Protrusions sliced into the dark, smooth-hewn jablite of this rock like cavern.  All this waiting to descend frighteningly from the trapeze wire suspension above with its suggested sheer weight. Standing underneath you feel the sense of a would-be-coffin.

 

Bald Arch : Flashing Strip, Underlay 2012

I found the upside down nature of this chair-like structure, sealed in with flashing strip and buffered with underlay, spoke of all the usual orders of structure used in architecture. And although it looked as though it had been turned on its head at the same time it made sense as a form. All the weight bearing elements of the materials used being true to their inner core of physics. So imparting a logic as to its purpose.

Tor : Foam and Copper 2012

A ridged piece towering high. A notion of a place to sit at the top, with a patinated copper seat or possible slide. The foam although of dark grey solidity still giving no clue to its real physical susceptibility. If a breeze were to blow would it topple?. The corrugated teeth although set slightly off kilter with each other, as are want of grinding jaws, are given sharpened bite as copper sheets fit strongly and neatly along the cutting edges. Adding to the impression of an insecure but impenetrable and lonely place of rectitude or governance.

Junction : Brass, Jablite 2012

 

As with Alex's earlier work from 2011 this echoes the notions of structure being held within an unlikely material. The wrapped and impenetrable aspect from one side looks reminiscent of shiny gold (brass) wrapping paper. Suggesting a child like temptation to unwrap. On a larger scale it could be seen as the kind of gleaming polished and smart exterior of so many skyscraper buildings. Built to eschew confidence in their surrounds and their clients. Turn the corner on this piece and you find again the double question of exposed interior held no less uniformly and sleekly within its brass strapping. A do not cross the line brass strip, with the notion of that initial promise of the exterior being not what it seems. By holding something stark, bare, dark and possibly rough to the touch.

 

I’m becoming more and more intrigued by Alex’s art. A fascinating body of work and study of materials and aesthetics, which engage in our reactions to them and with each other. A distinct cognition of how they are used and work within our environment.

There are further images and video of his new work here. Erratics will be showing at Nottingham Castle Gallery until October 28^th  (note the opening times are changing for winter this week 10 am until 4 pm last admission 3.30)