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We sit in a period of time that has been described as the Anthropocene period, that is a ‘new human’ geological age of our own making.

First coined by Nobel Prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000, it is a way of describing the significant global impact industrialization has made on the Earth’s ecosystems. As an artist responding to the ecological, and indeed, geological impacts of consumerism, I am seeking ways to convey this effect through my art practice. For me, there is a correlation between the way we consume and the way we value materials.

There is also a relationship between the methodology of art practice and the perceived and prescribed value of art materials. Studio based art practice tends to emphasise materials that art institutions consider valuable, like oil on canvas, bronze and marble. However, new ideas are emerging. According to Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Art encompasses ‘a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context.’ He also suggests the term Altermodern, which he describes as a way ‘…to translate the cultural values of cultural groups and to connect them to the world network.’ The materials used then, can be superseded by the social outcomes of the art practice.

The process of collecting, cleaning and cutting the aluminium cans in the art room, during my residency at Bridgewater High School, became the interface for dialogue with the students. The stories that I relayed about corporations, consumerism, and environmental consequences, were, in the above sense, more important than the artworks produced. This is not to say the artwork itself has no value. The containers have been emptied of their contents and meaning, both literally and metaphorically, and the resulting homogenized appearance conveys more of the cans material origins than the syrupy contents or the campaign to sell you a brand.

The title of the work displayed, Alumination, references the illuminated manuscripts of celtic christianity, as well as the material processes involved to manufacture the cans. These cans now tell a story of the way we live and the value we give materials. What were once single use containers are now ascribed Accultural value through an art practice. That is, the resulting value is a combination of the interaction between myself, the artist, the people interacting with my art practice, the audience viewing the artwork, plus all the various prescribed and perceived values of the material, as a container, a brand, a drink, a source for recycling, or simply rubbish to be discarded. The value that is now created is new and unique in the context of time, people and place.

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The Fabric of Life community art project was a part of the Kickstart Arts Happiness Project, a three year project involving artists, health and community workers and educators working in collaboration with community members to make beautiful films about what true happiness means to them. Fabric of Life is a large multi-piece fabric collage made from the discarded and donated clothing of community members throughout Tasmania. The fabric artworks contain handwritten stories and anecdotes of the individuals involved, which were digitised to create an interpretive touch screen display. Over 160 individual participants contributed to the making of Fabric of Life, ranging in age and ability from prep students to elderly nursing home residents. Each of the 35 fabric collage panels fit neatly into the triangle framework of the geodesic dome Happiness Pod, a portable solar powered cinema and workshop space designed to travel to remote, disadvantaged and isolated communities. To date the Happiness Pod and the Happiness Maintenance Crew have travelled to AgFest, Oatlands, Franklin, Glenorchy, Salamanca Lawns and Glenorchy Works Festival.

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http://kickstart.org.au

The built up environment we live in is built upon another environment from millennia past. Shells of living creatures in the surrounding waterways literally became part of the new built environment; burnt to provide lime for mortar to bind bricks into buildings. Shellfish, once a dietary staple of the original inhabitants, supplied a new industry and livelihood to the invaders. Today they continue to offer culinary pleasure for locals and visitors alike.

The composition of the work represents the interdependency of humans and nature. The geometric steel structures refer to the human-made and the shells represent nature. The mesh holds the shells in place efficiently, much like in farming, but also creating an all too familiar geometric aesthetic. The blocks are arranged to capture a sense of play; an unexpected chance encounter between human and nature.

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Equivalent is made up of 168 paper bricks made with a 'Kambrook Combusta Brick Maker', a one-time novelty item of the 1980s. The shredded newspaper is soaked in water and pressed together in the brick maker, and then, once dried out, can be used to burn in a fire. This work references Carl Andre's minimalist work of the 1960-70s comprising fire bricks configured in different ways but always with the equivalent number, and therefore mass, of bricks.

Robert Hughes, in his seminal work, 'The Shock of the New' (page 393), had this to say of the work: "The essential difference between a sculpture like Andre's Equivalent VIII, 1978, and any that had existed before in the past is that Andre's array of bricks depends not just partly, but entirely, on the museum for its context. A Rodin in a parking lot is still a misplaced Rodin; Andre's bricks in the same place can only be a pile of bricks".

This work also utilises the mundane, the daily newspaper, and, in its 24x7 configuration, references the 24/7 news media that is slowly eroding the relevance of the printed press, and moving it towards obsolesence, much like the Kambrook Combusta Brick Maker. The context of the gallery is even more important, for if this work were left in a parking lot, it would quickly deteriorate. Although made from such ephemeral material, it shares the property of many 'readymade' minimalist artworks, in that the original purpose of the bricks can still be utilised. Like Andre's work it is indeed made up of 'fire' bricks.