03.05 - 05.05.2019 Amalgamation 
'Plastic: The Slow Tsunami' 1.5 Metre square. Bottle tops, glue and board

An artwork commissioned by Staffordshire University Students' Union, reflecting on the unnatural disaster of a material that is consuming our oceans; plastic. I have been working alongside the Students Union, to encourage peers to reconsider the quantity of plastic bottles we go through as a University. Bringing the global problem of plastic consumption back to the individual and their responsibility. 

These bottle tops have been collected across the University campus, as a material for making the work but also with the aim of raising awareness; encouraging staff and students to consider alternatives to become a more sustainable University. 

03.05 - 05.05.2019 Amalgamation
'Pollution Debris', polymer clay sculptures, fish hooks and found consumables. 

This installation aims to highlight how barbaric and damaging the human race are being to marine life and surrounding species through pollution debris in our oceans. Less than 20% of all plastic is recycled globally, with 40% of plastic produced being single use packaging (National Geographic, 2018).

An estimated 640,000 tonnes of nylon ghost nets, lines and          discarded fishing gear is abandoned in our oceans each year; ensnaring, maiming, drowning or simply starving hundreds of thousands (World Animal Protection 2014).

This installation is a call to arms, recognising the need to work together to create change. Each sculpture represents a real circumstance, a painful reminder of the destruction we are leaving behind. 

06.05.2019
Back in February as part of Green Week at Staffordshire University, our Students Union held a design competition using a short brief that was sent out to the School of Creative Arts and Engineering students. The brief explained the design will be printed onto tote bags and sold in the Union shops, encouraging students to use reusable canvas bags instead of plastic. 
The theme was love your planet, and the design could be anything from a comic strip, to a pattern or pun, but had to be no bigger than 250mm x 250mm. The closing date was 15th February, and I entered 3 designs. 
Out of these 3 designs, 2 were chosen within the final 6, and were to be voted on via Facebook likes. The design with the most likes would have the opportunity to have their design printed on 100 bags and sold, and this was an opportunity I didn't want to miss! As this semester I have been focusing on plastic pollution and the impact human behaviour is having on the environment, this was another opportunity to raise awareness and reduce the amount of plastic being produced/sold on campus.

The deadline for voting was up and the competition was complete. I won First and Third place. This was a fantastic achievement as I had never ventured into design before and can't wait to see my design printed and sold. The winning design (say no to plastics) received a total of 68 likes/votes, and the third place design (save your 10p), 23. 
I am still currently waiting for the design to be printed and put in shops, but I am looking forward to having my design mass produced and commercially sold. Being able to purchase my first professionally printed design is another great opportunity I was able to gain this semester. 

https://www.facebook.com/staffsunion/photos/a.10156124214717548/10156124214782548/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/staffsunion/photos/a.10156124214717548/10156124214982548/?type=3&theater

04.05.2019

Since emailing the photograph of the bottle tops mural to the students union for printing, some issues and confusion with payment had arose. Because of this, now the printed board couldn't be up by Friday 3rd May. This was disappointing as I had family coming to the end of year exhibition, Amalgamation, and would've been great to share the success with them, but a minor set back at that. With the help of Anna, one of my lecturers, the project has been put back on track and the order has been placed. We are now hoping to use the Degree show as the opening instead. 

There were also some re-arranging of dates for the workshops with the nurseries, as we are now hoping to get an early years education student to put together a lesson/workshop plan for the day. Pushing it back to Wednesday 29th May, a day in the middle of half term for schools, also coinciding with the National Children's Gardening Week event outside the Students Union. This will hopefully lead to a really fun and exciting day of activities with the kids, teaching them important lessons about the fragility of our ecosystem.

As the public printed artwork wasn't ordered in time, I was glad I had brought the piece back with me to be in the exhibition, as we could still present the work to the public in a different form. We had found room In the exhibition in the front hallway and gave the public a bright and colourful artwork to be greeted by. 

I had brought in the bottle tops mural on Tuesday in the afternoon, and on Wednesday morning I used the assistance of artist David Bethell for the install. As the bottle tops varied in size and height, flipping it on its front to drill the two boards together would've caused damage to the work. So to reduce the breakage of bottle tops we used two tables, slightly separated. Once the two boards were connected we made measured markings on the wall in the hallway so that the mural would sit in the middle. As the wall panels weren't strong enough, we had to attach the mural to the vertical wooden joists, to insure that the boards would be secure. To do this without any screws on show, we measured the distance from the edge of the board to where the joists would sit, and removed plastic bottle tops vertically along the line. After then getting help from 4-5 other students, and glueing the bottle tops that had been taken/ fallen off, the tricky and fiddly install was complete.

I was overall pleased with the positioning of the board, but as only one light in the hallway was working sufficiently; it was quite dark and poorly lit. To improve the end result of this work, I should have sourced/brought in some external lighting, to help accentuate  the colours and details within the piece. 

The feedback I had received throughout the night, but also during install and setting up was beyond positive. Everyone loved the colours, and was impressed by the different tones and shadings I had achieved, whilst also reflecting on the important message of the work behind it. Picking up key themes of plastic pollution, tsunamis, climate change, and recognising Hokusai's The Great Wave as well. Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of this project, and although there was a delay in the printing and installing of the permanent board, I am pleased that it was out of my hands, and I still reached my personal deadline in time. I am still looking forward to the opening at the Degree show, and will start to gather some more ideas for activities for the workshops.

04.05.2019

Now being the day after the opening of Amalgamation, I can reflect on the week, and review how successful my installation was/went. 

On Monday I begun by bringing the work into the space and measuring sizes for the plinth for my 'turtle nose stud' sculpture. Once I was happy with the measurements I got the wood cut to size, and glued/taped it together. I was painting my plinths a rich blue, and completed my tasks by 3pm. I then was able to arrange my installation in the way as described in my proposal. 

Once the work was set out in the way I had intended, I realised it didn't quite work with the space. The exhibiting room I was in has a wall to the left of my installation, a door on the same wall to the right, and a wall sized window on the right (according to the image below). As the sculptures were front facing, this meant they were facing away from the door and window, meaning the viewer would have to be in a particular position to observe the work fully, making it awkward for viewing. 

It also felt pushed up against the wall. I was in a room with wall based work, paintings, and after a peer pointing this out, I realised I had an opportunity to occupy more space than I was using. 

Now Tuesday, I decided to completely mix up what I had originally planned. I had started by moving the plinths into the middle of the room to see roughly what it would look like in the middle. Straight away this arose issues with how you could view the paintings on the other walls. As the artist I was sharing the room with had multiple paintings making up a grid, it encouraged the way you view it to step back and have some distance from the paintings. By having the plinths in the middle it was restricting the viewing of this work, and overlapped/blocked them when from a distance. I had to think of another way I could use space, whilst not interfering with the other artists paintings. 

After negotiating a space swap with the other artist in the room, this gave me a cornered space which would fit better for what I now envisioned. 

I had then experimented with different compositions and decided on using the plinths/sculptures to create a symmetrical line in ascending order of height, similar to the lines and curves of a wave. I was happy with this decision as it is quite minimal yet pleasing on the eye. 

As I had now changed the spacing with my sculptures, I could no longer use the net as it was, in the way I had wanted to, so begun testing out different ways I could use it. 

Using pins I then hung the net on the wall. Although I thought it was effective in making the viewer/sculptures feel so small and consumed in comparison, it felt very fussily placed rather than a more natural swept feel I was after. So on Wednesday I removed the net and started again, now having the net protruding from the floor. This still didn't feel right to me so I took a break and painted the square on the floor for my penguin to sit in. 

I then sought out advice from my peers on other ways I could display the net that doesn't overlap into the 'seagull raincoat' sculpture's space, and potentially away from the wall as I wanted to have the viewer see the net as a physical, heavy sculptural object, rather than a more two dimensional form.

After getting some suggestions, I decided I wanted to keep the net in a similar state to how it would wash up on shore, or be tangled within the ocean. I wanted to have the net half hanging from fishing line, with the rest gathered and touching the floor. This proved difficult as the ceiling in the room is roughly double the height of a standard building ceiling, meaning it was unreachable to suspend something from. With the help of another artist on Thursday, we were able to use nails to attach fishing line from one wall to the opposite, which allowed us to then attach and suspend the net from the line. This was a perfect solution to the problem as it was hardly visible and allowed me to suspend the net away from the wall and make it look free standing. 

I am still really pleased with the impact the net creates as the height of the object is around 5 foot, giving an intimidating and overpowering feeling, and creates a really heavy and bulky impression to the net. I also added small details like sewing on fish hooks in different sizes, intertwined within the net. 

Overall it has been a tough week full of decision making and trial and error, but has been extremely rewarding. I am really happy with the final composition of the installation, and although it has been stressful at times, have really enjoyed making the most out of the space and sculptures.