Cleaning up the art world
A new exhibition at Elysium Gallery in Swansea explores how art can be made with minimal environmental impact, writes Jenny White A new Swansea TV company is eager to profile local artists
HOW can artists minimise their impact on the environment? In a world where resources are being plundered and waste is piling up, the world of visual art is not exempt from scrutiny – materials such as oil paints, for example, can contain many toxic ingredients.
A new exhibition at Swansea’s Elysium Gallery called SGIP/SKIP: Eco Visions addresses the problem head-on by exploring different approaches to making art and sourcing art materials.
Over the past 12 months, artists and members of the Elysium Gallery community which form the SGIP group have been looking at alternative ways to make art in the light of the worldwide environmental crisis.
Recycling, upcycling and experimenting with natural ingredients take centre stage in the show, which features work by Nazma Ali, Lucy Donald, Gemma Ellen, Mark Folds, Jonathan Green, Demian Johnston, Ann Jordan, Paul Munn and Sarah Poland.
They have been taking part in regular Eco Visions activities in the gallery’s new community space, Thirdspace. The result has been a hub for ideas, sharing and learning, looking at fresh ways artists might respond to environmental problems and how joined-up thinking between different people and communities could boost sustainability.
Outside Sarah Poland’s studio is a large outdoor, wood-fired cast-iron bath where she uses botanical colours to dye lengths of canvas before painting. Living lightly, in nature, with a growing awareness of the wider issues of plastic pollution and climate change, Sarah started looking to source sustainable materials for her creative practice.
“In 2011, while living in a woodland in west Wales, I wanted to make work ‘of the woodland’ and started making oak gall ink. In 2020 I broadened my palette, foraging botanical colours from the environment around me and I developed a garden area for growing dye plants,” she says.
This led her to create a piece of work that’s been dyed and painted using colour from plants. It is part of an immersive hanging installation which will be shown during her solo exhibition with Elysium Gallery in May.
For this project, Sarah has been running workshops in charcoal making, natural dyeing, botanical ink making and frame making.
“It has been exciting to see participants’ ideas about their creative practice grow more sustainable and to become more empowered to do so,” she says.
Lucy Donald has also been running workshops with school pupils and admits the experience opened her eyes to more sustainable ways to create art.
She says: “It has been extremely useful to research and experiment with alternative environmentally-friendly materials and methods
has exhibited and designed/made commissioned Public Art projects internationally from natural or sustainable or re-used materials.
His involvement with the SGIP/SKIP project has seen him leading the Eco Sculpture workshops, where he helped participants make sculptural objects from collected cardboard and the minimum of “connecting” materials (tape, glue, string, etc).
“Over the long sessions, I facilitated people’s individual ideas, helping with technical and conceptual aspects to realise their ideas,” he says. “I tempered this depending on people’s experience, ability, age and how much time they had to make the objects. Some people attended all three sessions and some only attended for a short period, but the results were unexpected and amazing, both large and small scale.
“Most of the made objects from the 30 participants will be included in the exhibition and I have made two cardboard sculptures for the exhibition which show a range of techniques in their making and sculpture utilising re-used pallets.
“The exhibition will show what is possible, using our resourcefulness, in art making.”
■ The exhibition runs until May 6 at Elysium Gallery, Swansea. More details can be found at www.elysiumgallery.com
Swantv, Swansea’s new online TV station, is eager to profile artists from across the Swansea Bay region.
Mike Leahy, pictured, originally founded Swantv some years ago, then it entered a hiatus before it relaunched late last year. It’s a community interest company that aims to share positive local news. Stories can be viewed on social media, on Youtube and on the Swantv app.
“We’d like to create more profile pieces about artists, because we want to encourage any art of any type,” says Mike. “We encourage everyone to get in touch, particularly if they have something interesting.
“We’re not just interested in people who have been to art school – we’re interested in anyone who likes to make art and craft.”
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Get in contact via www.swantv.com