NO TIME TO WASTE
Think about every piece of plastic you’ve ever used in your life. Now imagine if all that plastic came together at once. What would your mountain of landfill look like? This is the question being posed by Lutana artist Linda Crispin whose drawing, Queen of Convenience, has been shortlisted for the 2019 Henry Jones Art Prize as an exploration of waste in our modern era.
The image depicts Crispin wrapped in a cape made from supermarket shopping bags and adorned with a crown made from plastic knives and forks.
The 46-year-old says she was compelled to create the work after examining the terrible amount of plastic waste coming in and out of her family home.
She was also concerned by the amount of litter she was seeing in Tasmania’s natural environment while out mountain biking with her family.
“Every piece of plastic you have used in your life still exists,’’ explains Crispin, who creates art from her home studio when she’s not working full-time in an office job or running an organic market garden at Colebrook with her husband.
“The piece of cling wrap that your mum wrapped your assorted creams in before placing them in your plastic lunchbox; that yoghurt tub you bought in the second week of October 2001; the garbage bag currently lining your bin, slowly being filled with plastic from your packaged fruit and vegetables. You don’t see it, but it is all still out there.’’
She says figures from Greenpeace show that, on average, each Australian produces 1.5 tonnes of waste a year — and most of it is avoidable.
“Waste for the sake of convenience is threatening to strangle us, like a plastic ring from a milk bottle around a sea bird’s neck,’’ she says.
Crispin is delighted to be a finalist for the Henry Jones Art Prize, a $20,000 award which supports emerging, early-career artists who are invited to enter painting, drawing, print-making and mixed media works created in the past year.
The winner will be announced at the exhibition opening on Thursday.
“I work full-time in an office job and make art on the side, which is really important to me,’’ says Crispin, who spent seven years as a mature-age student completing her fine arts degree part-time at the University of Tasmania.
“I hope to eventually push that balance the other way and work less and make art more. It’s so great that these sorts of art prizes are out there.’’
And she hopes her work will encourage people to think more about reducing their own plastic waste and be kinder to the environment.
“Artists really are a voice,’’ she says. “They interpret what is happening in our society and our community, and show that in a different light to people, and spark conversation and understanding and awareness.’’
The Henry Jones Art Prize exhibition runs from Thursday (November 28) until December 8, from 9am-5pm, in the Henry Jones Packing Room and Atrium. thehenryjonesartprize.com.au