Category: Exposure Year 3

ETHICAL DIGITAL GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURIAL

Reflecting on my final collection of forms and the development of this project, my research and focuses. I feel my work focused on some of the EDGE Attributes, creating and highlighting an importance to sustainability and nature. In various ways I can see my work falling within the categories of EDGE.

Ethical

My work focuses on the ethical use of materials with strong focus on use of sustainable and recycled materials. I was consciously deciding to use materials that were either sustainable, recycled or natural, rather than the alternative of plastic and artificial additives when making the paper and forming the sculptures. i tried and explored and used alternative to pva glue opting for a biodegradable alternative that is not harmful to nature. I was very careful not to disturb nature when taking natural materials as I felt it wasn’t ethically right to be picking the materials from the trees so instead I collected only what i could find on the floor. as well as my inspiration taken from the Cradle to Cradle model and the circular model to create sustainability within my work.

Digital

I have developed my digital skills throughout this project, creating a platform for my work online and representing my work through social media. I want to continue to professionalise my work and further develop my digital skill through the development of my career.

Global

I have taken great inspiration from global practitioners, theories and techniques within my work. Focusing on both national and global artists, I have seen great links between the methods of production and the use of materials and fibres combined into the process. showing that not only is paper making a traditional technique it is used universally in similar ways and processes. Furthermore looking into the circular model of pulp factory, India with the companies use of paper and sustainable design was a great inspiration to my work along with their use of a circular model to explain the process of renewal within their work.

Entrepreneurial

Although it doesn’t directly link to entrepreneurial, I wanted to brand myself and my work with my morals focusing on the circular model, by creating my own model that represents my beliefs and aims within my work to be sustainable and use materials inclusive to the process in a circular fashion I am able to build up my own identity, and help me to become unique and make my style of working stand out from others in my field.

SWOT analysis of my final collection of pieces to help me see where to improve and find opportunities to move forward and continuing what I enjoy.

The same piece of paper can be reprocessed up to 4 times in its life span until the fibres become to small to bind together. This regenerative process allows for the paper I am creating to become sustainable and an environmentally friendly alternative.

In terms of sourcing the waste paper used within my work. I have been using my own offcuts from my art work. these primarily were heavy weight cartridge and water colour papers. to continue the sourcing of my materials as i progress and inevitable create more i need to find alternative sources of waste paper.

PALM recycled paper making company (https://www.palm.de/en/recycling/raw-materials.html) collect their raw waste materials by contacting offices and removing their photocopy waste as a way of being more sustainable and sensible with materials in order to repurpose a waste material.

This got me thinking about how I could start to source my own waste papers. I have an art printers local to me who mass print and produce art prints, inevitably creating offcuts. This is a potential opportunity for me to contact them and take their offcuts away to be used within my paper making process.

I wanted to consider how I could progress with my practice and in particular with how I can continue the exploration into site specific sculptural work, natural materials, traditional paper making techniques and the material qualities of paper.

I want to experiment with wall hung forms and possible art installation to explore how my work could take a different form. This is the same with the possible progression of my work being large scale lighting because of the opaquisity and fragility of the paper forms would lend itself to being lit.

I want to continue my exploration into the paper making process. Especially learning form a professional paper maker or someone within the professionalism to patch any of the gaps in my knowledge as a lot of my knowledge is self taught.

My inspiration is the natural world, material and process, fascinated by lichen, its form and its role as part of the woodland ecosystem and specifically within the New Forest, Hampshire. I am intrigued by how one life form can be sustained from another, circular and constantly renewing. I use traditional paper making techniques to make handmade paper, using Abaca Fibre and discarded waste paper collected from the offcuts of artwork, as well as locally sourced collected and dried natural materials. I embed these into the paper, along with wild woodland seeds. The paper making process is rhythmic and repetitive; Continual and slow. The paper fibres are beaten, pulped and formed into thin sheets with deckled edges. Thin, opaque and fragile. I use papier mâché to build the organic spherical structures using a natural cellulose glue from corn starch, making the forms both sustainable and biodegradable. The inclusion of wild woodland seeds into the paper intends to recreate natural ecosystem cycles; sculptures biodegrade, change form, returning back to nature, regenerating or recycled into something new… an indelible trace of themselves. I combine both traditional red list endangered craft with contemporary paper manipulation, to create delicate organic forms. My ambition is to create an appreciation for paper for its material qualities, often involving the use of the human senses, of sight, touch and smell. Also creating an awareness for consciously made artwork, with nature and sustainability in mind.

I decided to make mock ups of what I am hoping to create as photoshop images of my work in location.

The top left image, a white cube gallery space was my instinctive choice for location. This would be a classic location for a sculptural form to be. Although I believe a more industrial style polished concrete would compliment my work better as the contrast of natural inspiration and man made materials/ man made paper create an interesting opposition that when placed together work quite well.

The top right, an industrial brick. I could also visualise the forms complimenting the industrial man made background. or perhaps an interior space? for the similar reasons as above.

The bottom left, a woodland is where I intend to take some of my photographs for my final form. Although practically this is not the best location for the forms as they will disintegrate through biodegradation of the paper. It is harmonious to show the forms against the origins of my inspiration, The New Forest .

The bottom right, a stream. Although not the most practical for reasons above. I photographed some of my maquettes on a piece of wood that was resting in the water and the rippling of the water provides an interesting distortion of the forms and a reflection of the underside of the forms.

nature vs man made

man made pros

• provides interesting contrast
• juxtaposes the natural forms
• preserves the delicate paper
• is a more public space

nature pros

• provides harmonious backdrop to the forms
• compliments the materials and inspiration
• people would discover the forms.

manmade cons

• could distract away from the delicate forms
• forms could lose impact and meaning
• could get a little lost in the space if they are not raised up

nature cons

• forms will disintegrate and biodegrade
• effects of weather and wild animals (In the New Forest there are wild horses)
• lack of publicity or propper exhibition of work

I decided to make my own circular model for my process, to demonstrate how my work can be explained through a diagram, this was inspired by The Pulp Factory’s circular model. This is to explain how everything I make can be returned back into a cycle, making it sustainable and environmentally friendly.

It has occurred to me that all the way through this project, process and changes to the material and combining the natural collected materials has made the paper adopt subtle and distinctive smells taken from nature. I had my mum (who was previously a beer taster, who used descriptive words to describe the taste of beer) to describe the smells of my sculpture forms and the paper I am creating. This is what she came up with:

• old wood cedar/pine
• woodland on a wet day
• dusty
• dry
• pencil sharpenings
• floral
• sweet
• perfumed
• green leaf tea
• earl grey tea
• wood pine sawdust
• black tea
• rose/ floral drops

It is interesting to see the types of words that came up. When I first started this project I was not aware that these sculptures would have an aroma. It is hard to describe this kind of thing virtually but I believe it is beneficial to recognise that these are quite sensual and tactile forms, both through the material of paper and the use of natural materials.