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Waste to art 2018
Exhibition guide
We are delighted to present the 2018 Sustainable Neighbourhoods Waste to Art exhibition.
Thank you to the school groups, individuals and artists who have created these thought-provoking works. |
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Grace Murphy
Coffee Break Australians dispose of approximately 1 billion coffee cups annually. My artwork explores the nature in which overconsumption of a non recyclable material is a very common practice in our society and is highly costly for our planets natural environment. This artwork was made by myself along with the help of some friendly people on the way. The idea was inspired by the recent ABC documentary, War on Waste, when I was confronted with a number of realities surrounding this coffee industry. 50 thousand coffee cups are thrown away every minute in Australia. The vast majority of these cups are made with a lining of plastic making them a non recyclable. This plastic lining is not able to biodegrade and is a major pollution hazard. Coffee cups are the second most wasted materials after water bottles. These are the 4 facts that stood out to me most and I knew I wanted to spread the word through my artmaking. The coffee cups displayed were collected by my friends and I, after enjoying a delicious flat white of course. Paper makes up most of the cup and I figured that behind every coffee cup was a tree that had lost its life. I decided to hand carve trees into every cup offering that other side of the story too, the before. I really hope that my work will help you to stop and think before buying that takeaway coffee and maybe inspire you to invest in a reusable coffee cup instead! |
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Dianne Powell
The writing box Writing box from salvaged timber, marbles and inherited objects Constructed from WRC Shiplap timber, coated with thick grey paint and previously used as bathroom cladding. Enough was salvaged to construct the writing box and a 15" ruler. A Christmas Day project with my brother, Wayne Powell. The marbles that form the pen rest are from my childhood. The S/S wire, hinges are found objects. The inkwell was inherited from Aunty Eileen the Opal from my brother Michael. From roadside waste to a useful, beautiful thing, collectively forming family history too. |
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Mandy McDonald
“After the Party…” Painting and collage with fireworks litter Fireworks light up the night sky with their fleeting bursts of sound and colour, but what do they leave behind? The plastic and cardboard debris you see in this picture is all litter which washed up on Toronto foreshore the morning after the New Years Eve fireworks. Amongst the dried seagrass are spent fireworks shells, caps, plugs, tubes and charred fuses. Plastic debris such as this can remain in the environment for up to 1000 years, and can be easily mistaken for food by marine animals. When it washes up on the shore this debris can pose a hazard to foraging shorebirds, such as the endangered Pied Oystercatcher featured in this artwork. |
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Dianne Powell
Card collage Collage from cardboard, cards, flowers, and paper The idea was hatched when I received cardboard packaging from a new 'fridge. I usually use the cardboard to cover weedy areas in the garden. I put the bottom packaging aside as it looked a perfect canvas size. The cards are from my personal collection, the pressed sunflowers and recycled torn paper from the paper drawer for things that might come in handy sometime. I was brought up in a family where waste was seen as a resource long before it became 'fashionable' or now, a necessity. |
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Lynn Davis
Revised Reworked vintage 1970s oil painting My work has added a modern twist to a 1970s oil painting found at an op shop. |
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Angie Parkes
Caves Beach – Swansea Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group Mosaic tables Tables made from bulk waste tables and found broken china |
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Dianne Powell
Wood panels Panels from salvaged wooden door I pulled an old wooden door apart and wondered what history was underneath the white paint. Beautiful colours appeared after the flapper disc on the angle grinder uncovered the many layers of paint and patterns. I turned it back into the original 'Z' door as 2 art panels, 595mm X 795mm. Framed in galvanised angle to re-hang the door!! |
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Pam Garfoot
Dancing in the Street Collage using vintage acrylic paintings, vintage gift wrap, and contemporary acrylic painting Dancing in the Street uses as its foundation a simple piece painted by my late father in the 1980s. It was abandoned in a leaky old shed at my mother’s house and was rediscovered recently when her house was being prepared for sale. My sisters wanted to throw out the water-damaged painting, but I salvaged it, along with my father’s painting of a ballerina. My collage uses the two works and adds cut-outs from old gift wrap which is at least 40 years old (also found at my mother’s house and destined for the tip). Overlooking this multi-layered work is a ghostly image of my father. Another interesting aspect to these ‘re-purposed’ works is that both my father’s paintings were originally created using materials he himself had re-used from elsewhere: the larger canvas was constructed by my father from scrap he had in his shed, and the ballerina image was painted on a piece of discarded canvas from old curtains dating from the 1950s. Dancing in the Street has become a bitter-sweet, memory-laden exploration of re-using and remembering. |
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Women’s Shed on the Lake
Women’s Shed on the Lake Wall hanging from bottle caps Women's Shed On The Lake Waste to Art entry was inspired by a similar work displayed at Boolaroo Public School. Women from the shed collected bottle tops from family, friends and local coffee shops over the last few months to contribute to the artwork. We have regular meetings every second Friday of the month where the women worked on the piece over a few months. The Women's Shed is an activity of Our Community Place at Boolaroo and the artwork is to displayed on the outside wall at their office to beautify the spot. Other items on the artwork are recycled coffee cups for the shed and some flowers made from old crockery donated by other members of the group who are working on a mosaic bust. The backing boards were donated by the husband of one of our group from his shed and the other was an old advertising board from a local football ground. The artwork depicts the Women's Shed on the hill near the lake. |
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Steve Dewar
Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group Say no to straws! Sculpture from straws “Say No to Straws” means to stop a major plastic pollutant to our environment. Plastic straws make colourful hoops rather than being tossed into our bush and lake! |
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Christine Douglass and Paul Gwan
Caves Beach – Swansea Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group Plant stand Plant stand made from an old bulk waste chair , plastic juice bottles, old saucepan, plant cuttings and other discarded items. No purchased items. |
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Coralie Smyth
Sunstruck Acrylic on salvaged plywood |
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Coralie Smyth
Moonlit Acrylic on salvaged plywood |
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Gabby’s Family Day Care
Goanna Sculpture from packaging, fabric and feather Children aged 18months to 5years created our Goanna. Our inspiration is from Tjanpi Desert Weavers who make sculptures using natural grasses, we make bush toys from natural grasses and plants. We recycle everything we can, Lylah (5) suggested we use some “garbage” to make a sculpture instead of “plants that animals can live in”, and Gabby heard about this exhibition. The Goanna is made from Pringles chip packet, Chia Tea containers, Styrofoam, Pamphlets/scrap paper, Repurposed fabric, Yogurt lids, Milk lid inserts, Discarded/broken peacock feather. |
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Alyssa
Lake Macquarie High School Pureness to growth Water colour, paint, cardboard and tape. |
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Tegan
Lake Macquarie High School |
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Loraine Micevski
Perspex tulips Sculpture from Perspex off-cuts My design uses off-cuts of bright coloured Perspex. This medium was extremely hard to work with. First, I drew an outline of the tulips and leaves on the Perspex and used a jugsaw to cut and create these artificial flowers. The tulips are arranged on a photo image of a flowerbed of tulips, which I took whilst visiting a London park in full bloom. The harshness and sharpness of the manmade Perspex in vibrant colours contrasts with the soft, organic and seasonal display captured in the photo. I wanted to create awareness of the importance of plastic recycling. Maybe off-cuts of building materials can create new forms of decoration? |
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Angie Parkes
Trio of mosaics Sculptures from broken china |
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Leanne Tollard
Mosaic mirror Mosaic from broken china |
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Unknown artist
Felt hat Hat made from felted wool |
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Margrete Erling
Over Sees Reworked painting It's a reworked fairly kitschy oil painting from the 1970s that was hung horizontally on my father’s wall. The original painting featured a seascape with breaking surf. My father passed away late last year and left many of his artworks. He hated things being wasted and was a keen environmentalist. As I didn't really like the work but wanted to reuse it somehow rather than throwing it away, I reformatted the work. Turning it vertically and reworking the painting, I utilised similar colours and retained the original work behind. Applying layers, I included a Viking Ship to honour my father’s heritage and juxtaposed an architectural urban design with Pacific Ocean themes, to localise the work. The kitschyness is similarly retained yet reused, enabling the work to commence a newly metamorphasized symbolism. |
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Paula Lees
Living on the verge Photographs depicting neighbourhood bulk waste Most people have no understanding of what they are throwing out. You just put out what you don’t want out on the kerb and it magically gets taken away. No one thinks about it because they don’t have to!! During our last kerbside collection, we gathered together a group of neighbourhood kids and explored the large piles discarded in our street. We decided to stage the furniture, appliances, books, toys and furnishings as they might be used inside a house and photograph them. So many of these items were perfectly useable, in great condition, or repairable. We had fun posing while trying to draw attention to a serious issue. Over consumption and waste. All of these items were heading straight to landfill! Our community needs to Rethink, Reuse, Repair, Repurpose, Recycle. |
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Christine Douglass and Paul Gwan
Caves Beach – Swansea Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group Christmas tree Sculpture made from cardboard, yogurt containers, PVC pipe off cut and old bucket and other waste products - items that would normally be discarded after first use. |
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Angie Parkes
Glamour Sculpture from broken teapots and china |
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Shirley Bjornsson
Floppy disc components Hat, handbag, necklace and bracelet made from floppy discs Floppy discs hat, handbag, necklace and bracelet lined with a silver cushion cover with a plain grey lining which I have used to line the handbag and hat. The electric wire was picked up from a skip bin on the street. |
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Angie Parkes
Seahorse Savvy Sculpture from plastic straws My sculpture examines the interplay between pollution and the survival of some of our most delicate sea-life. Drinking straws are transformed into sea-horses which ‘take hold’ and flourish: sea-horses 1, straws-0. |
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Olga Kalistratova
Bags from bags A purse, a handbag, a backpack and two shoulder bags have been crocheted from plastic shopping bags. |
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Monique
Lake Macquarie High School |
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Jill Overton
Small Assassins Sculpture from Styrofoam and small disposable items This represents the small everyday items we dispose of every day. They do not seem great in number but when multiplied by the millions of us who use these things, the collective amount is enormous. Our world was created by tiny things, dust particles, bacteria, atoms, and we are now destroying our world with tiny things such as micro plastics, microfibres and excesses of toxic particles. I have been inspired to impart information such as this since 1994 when I became involved in a training group called Earthworks which was started by Canterbury Council and the EPA teaching groups how to compost, worm farm and reduce waste in their daily lives. The overwhelming images of destruction caused by our waste have been made apparent through various media outlets e.g. War on Waste, 1 Million Women, etc. and exhibits such as yours will hopefully, open more eyes to our planet’s plight. |
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Christine Douglass
Caves Beach – Swansea Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group Thong tree Sculpture from discarded thongs and wire |
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Newcastle High School, Room 5
Sun. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. Wall hanging from bottle caps, pallets, ply, wire, wools, fabric, string and polystyrene |
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Christine Douglass
Caves Beach – Swansea Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group Mosaic Mirror Made from discarded old 70’s painting, broken mirror and items found around home, including glue and 4 glass coasters. No items were purchased. |
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Laura Matheson
Pearly King Vest Upcycled clothing using old buttons with cultural significance I made this vest for my dad who has always loved the fashion and mystique of the Pearly Kings and Queens of London. This work was part of my Year 10 Textile and Design Portfolio 2018. the Pearly Kings and Queens of Cockney London began in the late 1800’s as a rival gang culture. One of the ways they expressed rivalry between local gangs, apart from violence, was with costume. Gang members would decorate their clothes with pearl buttons in designs representing where they were born. For my Year 10 Textile and Design project I decided to upcycle a piece of clothing. I had recently watched a program on the devastating impact of fast fashion. My family rarely buys new things so upcycling was an obvious activity for me. The vest I made was made from recycled things I bought at local 2nd hand markets, Op shops and freebies. It cost me approximately $20. It took me many hours to sew the buttons on. Some of the buttons are very old and made from shell, some of them are acrylic and more modern. My mum showed me sewing techniques and helped me with the research into the history of Pearly culture. My dad loves it and wears it to special occasions. People love to talk about the vest when they see him wearing it. |
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Christine Douglass
Caves Beach – Swansea Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group Fine balance Small boat with collected marine debris |
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Newcastle High School, Room 5
Rainbow. Lest we forget Wall hanging from bottle caps, pallets, ply, wire, wools, fabric, string and polystyrene The Victory Medal was awarded to commemorate the victory of the allied forces. The ribbon was a two rainbow design with violet on the outside and red in the middle. |
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Newcastle High School, Room 5
In Flanders Field the poppies grow Wall hanging from bottle caps, pallets, ply, wire, wools, fabric, string and polystyrene The students of Room 5 at Newcastle High School have moderate intellectual disabilities and are working on 3 wall hangings of different sizes made from recycled pallets and ply, plastic bottle lids, wire, wools, fabric and string. They are memorial works of art remembering the 100 years since the end of World War 1. |
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Beccie
Lake Macquarie High School |
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Flame
Lake Macquarie High School |
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Jaidyn
Lake Macquarie High School |
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Lillie
Lake Macquarie High School |
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Loraine Micevski
Newspaper baby mobile Mobile from newspaper, pizza boxes, twine and twigs Can we judge an new parent for not providing the latest, shiniest, “Disneyesque” toy, featured in a glossy baby magazine? Does a baby really care what brand or how much money is spent on their nursery? Can a baby actually see the toys that surround them? Sometimes we may measure our love and generosity with material things? I thought about how a gift could be made from newspapers, old pizza boxes, twine, twigs and a little imagination. I wanted to demonstrate that love and time in creating a mobile from available items of litter could still be cute and relevant to the baby, particularly if the newspaper used was the same date as the baby’s birth. |
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Sheree Davey
Dragon Soup Design – Pieces individually named Candleholders from bric a brac Dragon Soup Design Candleholders are created from preloved crystal, glass, brass, silver, copper and other metal pieces and are prepared for their new lease on life. Each candleholder is unique and original and more than likely the only one of its kind in the world….unless of course they were a pair…..or a parallel universe....... Individually they are gorgeous, sometimes most feminine and elegant, sometimes masculine, or vintage or modern, sometimes quirky. One can look fabulous on its own, but collectively they look stunning. Create your own ‘Den’ of DSD Candleholders, create a theme or simply collect the ones you love. |
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Thanks to the artists:
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Take action on local waste issues
Sustainable Neighbourhoods is a Lake Macquarie based program that empowers community members to address sustainability issues.
Sustainable Neighbourhoods is a Lake Macquarie based program that empowers community members to address sustainability issues.
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