Don't fuck with the planet, it's where I keep all my stuff...

"Scientists have confirmed that there are millions of tonnes of plastic floating in an area of ocean known as the North Pacific Gyre....currents have carried millions of tonnes of rubbish into the centre of the gyre, which now covers an area estimated to be larger than the US state of Texas."
This upsets me! no end. Seriously, we're f**king the planet! Ah well, I have heaps of plastic baby bottles, so maybe I can make something with them which represents my disgust more eloquently than words...


this is an installation which I made last year: 'Don't fuck with the planet, it's where I keep all my stuff!' (below) which was about air quality pollution... and our temporary cover measures... and that was pretty well a turning point for my work, which has been on an environmental bent ever since...

I'm having a frustrating day, where it feels like there is little I can do. I know, changing myself and my immediate circle is the best I can do...
but some days even that seems too hard, and like all humans, I get wrapped up in my own little world; having a cry about my fucked up hair cut (I got 'jackassed'... a large strip of no hair, so I'm now down to a grade one all over again...) seemed more immediate yesterday than the effect my existance has on the natural environment. I feel guilty about it, but that's the way life is sometimes. I have to continually remind myself that if I'm doing my best, I can't ask anymore of myself.

In other news...
Green Peace is using ice sculptures too... must be something in that eh? I have something somewhat like this planned for Wanganui, although, not on such a massive scale, and also to do with the RIVER as much as the global warming.. interesting.

One hundred days before governments meet in Copenhagen to decide what they will do to stop climate change.
One billion men, women and children in Asia facing drought from climate change.
Time is running out.
We need that climate summit to take fair and effective action to stop climate change, or like these ice children, our futures will melt away. These melting statues represent the melting glaciers in the Greater Himalayan region which are melting faster than ever before because of climate change.And without these glaciers more than one billion people will go thirsty.Western scientists and Chinese scientists agree on the accelerated melting.

"Sorry mate. Some pants or something. Thank you."

So, (if you're Marc Quinn*), you can put a naked statue of a pregnant woman with physical disabilities on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. (I know, I was there when it was put up :) ). But if you're Joe Public, taking part in Antony Gormleys One&Other** project you are not allowed to be naked, because that's just indecent exposure... sorry what?!
Art has always contained nudity, what's the big deal, it's not like he was having a wank, although that's ok/art if you're Vito Acconci! Each of the 2400 people that get to stand on the plinth for an hour were supposed to be able to have their say about whatever they want, if you're a nudist, why should you be banned? Ah well, negative publicity is better than no publicity right?

*Speaking of Marc Quinn, I've been looking at his Bloodhead presentation and thinking about my Venus work, and whether or not I'll use refrigeration or dry ice... leaning toward dry ice I think..

**the one&other website has a livestreaming video, and when I was searching round this today there was a young chap playing his drum kit on the plinth, and he was pretty damn good! Good to hear the public getting behind him too... yay performance art!

This site is genius. Public Art in the UK and internationally, with lots of resources, links and pictures!

Post Public Art Lecture

Am very glad I switched from Life Drawing to Public Art. Spoke to Rita about it the other day, and she agreed that it was a good move for me too, so that's sweet as.
First Public art class was with Andrea Gardner, who is Brit Bunkley's partner - Brit is our usual sculpture tutor, but he was still in the states.

Andrea put together a slide show of Public artists, which was brilliant; she had a lot of information about each particular work as well as information about the artists themselves. She also briefly discussed her own practise, and showed us an image of a public art piece she had created whilst still in the states.

The list of artists she gave us was a very good starting point from which to delve into public art.
One artist which I had heard of but hadn't really researched before was Francis Alys - The piece which particularly interested me was his Paradox of Praxis (Below) 1997.

This piece resonates for me because of it's temporary nature and the documentation of its destruction, which relates back to my apples and forward to another project I have in mind. It is also has a poetic quality which I like.

"This process can also operate on the narratives of art history, not to mention those of the art world. Paradox of Praxis, 1997, a piece in which I pushed a large block of ice through the streets of Mexico City until it melted into a puddle of water, was a settling of accounts with Minimalist sculpture. Sometimes, to make something, is really to make nothing; and paradoxically, sometimes to make nothing is to make something." -A thousand words: Francis Alys talks about When Faith Moves Mountains - Brief Article Art forum 2002.


It was good to read his perspective on his own work, he seems to think a lot about what he's doing and why, and articulates his concepts eloquently.

Paradox of Praxis is showing currently in a group show, The Quick and the Dead at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He's also currently showing at the National Portrait Gallery, London (one of my favourite places when I lived in London). His installation there, Fabiola , is a collection of copies/versions of a nineteenth century portrait of a fourth century Christian Saint which Alys has accumulated.I think it's a very interesting exploration of a well known icon and of how something becomes an icon. As an installation, the reds in the portraits work very well against the turquoise wall and it would be interesting to visit in person, to really study the differences and similarities between each image.

More of Alys's works can be found here.

Another series of work that stood out was Anthony Gormley's Field.


Anthony Gormley, Field for the British Isles 1993 Terracotta variable size, approx 40,000 elements, each 8-26 cm tall

I really like the way you can see each person's hand in this work.. and the way it's very much of the land that it came from.
I don't really like his Angel of the North sculpture, which was also shown, but I do like some of his more recent stuff, which can be found here.
Andrea also mentioned Charles Simonds, whose name my friend Xtiaan has been trying to remember for months to give to me. He used to make teeny tiny dwellings in walls, more about his work and other miniature things can be found here.

New Ideas a-brewin'

So I have an idea, that I want to pursue. Of course, the specifics of new ideas are something you keep quiet about until you've made the art work! Having said that...

this site has some relevance...

Of course first year sculpture wouldn't have been first year sculpture without our

Andy Goldsworthy-esque projects.

Andy Goldsworthy - Icicle Star

His style isn't what I'm after.. but it's a starting point. The temporary, ephemeral nature of his sculptures is also something that I find appealing. There's a poetry in it, nature is allowed to follow its course, even though this means the destruction of the work.

What I have in mind is something a bit more politically charged and related to the work I'm creating for Waiora/Intersect*

Mark Jenkins - Storker Project

It's also related on a completely different level to the work of Mark Jenkins**, which I love! It's so playful and cute without being 'cutesy' on a kitsch level.
Anyway, that'll do for now at least.

*Waiora art competition entry is a display fridge filled with baby bottles full of dirty water.
**Mark Jenkins is an artists I've known about for ages, and was linked to through a friend who found his page and thought of me.