GAP CRIT: Displaying my Paintings and Sculptures

For my Gap Crit, I decided to show my Paintings and Sculptures. The Gap Crit was a worthwhile exercise, people gave me both positive and helpful feedback and even brought up things about my work that I hadn’t thought about. I have lot’s of ideas of progression from this exercise.

For example, someone said that the brightly coloured painting linked with pollution in terms of the colours being toxic and saturated just like the world is becoming. I hadn’t thought about the colours representing toxicity. The idea of combining the dark paintings with the brighter painting came up which is what I am thinking of working with next. Thin glazes rather than opaque paint was mentioned. The subtle smell of oil was considered effective and my use of polluting materials something I should continue with and further but I should integrate the litter into the work more rather than it being so on the surface.

Someone said my paintings give an impression of a world they wouldn’t want to be in, but they are in. This confirms to me that they are highlighting environmental harm and avoiding overlooking it successfully.

Litter Plants: Experimenting with Sculpture

I did some research into environmental harm and found that often the soil underneath landfill becomes full of toxins and metal deposits and that things struggle to grow in it, apart from hyperaccumalator plants which can be used to extract these toxins. This got me thinking about what would grow out of this metallic toxic soil if plants could grow and so these kind of mutant litter plant sculptures were created.

The Litter Plants are potted in actual soil, highlighting the contrast between what is causing environmental harm and what is being harmed. The structure is made from recycled cardboard as a support to stick all of the litter to and build up the plant. I’ve never really experimented with sculpture before, so this is new for me, furthering and pushing my skills.

Ha Schult – “Trash People”

I came across the artist Ha Schult whilst searching for artists that incorporated Litter and pollutants into their work as I am doing within my painted works. Ha Schult creates sculptural works that he called “trash people”, human forms made out of litter.

Sculptures of “Trash People “, a perfomance made of German artist Ha Schult are exhibited at the Maniacea Castle for a G8 Environment meeting on April 22, 2009 in Siracusa, on the Italian island of Sicily. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

“In twenty containers they roam around the world like refugees of the consumer society. The Trash People are images of ourselves. We produce trash and we will become trash. Today’s Coca-Cola bottle is the Roman archeological found of tomorrow” – Ha Schult

He refers to his trash people as refugees of consumer society. To me, these sculptures comment on the amount of litter that we create, but also comments on the fact that the world is becoming less natural. The human body is a natural form and to see it made out of litter and man made waste to me is very powerful and makes you think about how much waste you are producing. It also portrays the fact that man are responsible for harming the planet, through littering and causing landfill.

I have never really experimented with sculpture, but this work inspires me to want to use the litter I am collecting to start experimenting with sculptural works. Whether I make piles of litter, like mini representations of landfill or make a recognisable form, I think having something made out of lots of litter that people can relate to highlights the harm our world is experiencing.