This art is a load of rubbish... literally
You might have heard of up-cycling, but Leeds based artists take it to the next level
Meet environmental artists:
Heather Price
and Luke Hobson
They take rubbish that would usually be thrown away and turn it into works of art. From melting packets of crisps into tiny characters, to dismantling old mobile phones and electricals to create miniature cities - they give junk a new life.
Luke studies Fine Art at university. Most of his work encompasses recycling, mass consumerism and sustainability – generally shown through installations and sculptures. Outside of university, Luke works at a zero-waste store in Leeds city centre called EcoTopia. Heather is a freelance environmental artist and works alongside Luke.
Heather says: “I like focusing on waste, so throw away and non-reusable items, also electronics because they are so disposable now. You get a phone and you upgrade it in three years and most people do more than that. So, it’s just about mass production and disposal.”
“A painting without painting”
Luke and Heather cover similar areas in their work and have recently been collaborating on ongoing projects.
They made a large canvas out of different layers of rubbish, Luke describing it as a “painting without painting”. The first layer is a collage of leaflets and throw away paper, which they received in the post. “We get so much junk mail and it just goes straight to recycling. So, what’s the point, if it’s just going to be wasted,” Heather says.
The second layer is plastic, found from their household waste. They stretched plastic and attached thin plastic bags on top of the cut-outs. Luke says,
“My art does act as a form of self-portraiture, as the waste I use is from home.”
Heather explains the basis of this idea, saying: “The world is becoming a big landfill and no matter how much we try to make it better, it doesn’t seem to be happening at the moment. There are too many big companies with all their money that don’t really care about the environment.”
Here’s one of my crisp packet creatures. They’re only tiny, everything I do is on a really small scale.
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Heather creates these miniature figures by melting the crisp packets in the oven. This compresses the plastic and creates a hard exterior.
“When they were in the oven, as they were shrinking, they were all flaying around so it looked like they were little people dying, melting away.”
Heather also made a world for her creatures to live in. She dismantled computers and electricals then created a “giant world”. She welded, plasma cut and soldered metal and other scraps of plastic and assembled homes. She adds: “It had zip wires to different pillars of tower blocks, all on plinths.”
“A lot of our art only exists now in photos,” says Luke.
Their art is not meant to be permanent: it either gets sold, dismantled and reconstructed into a new form or, eventually – of course - recycled.
“Once we have dismantled something, if there are certain things that we think are good piece we can use this again, we’ll keep this for ourselves. Others we will donate to other artists or they get recycled, if it is still recyclable after it has been used.”
Creative inspiration
Luke and Heather are mostly inspired by the works of Tim Noble and Sue Webster, who used rubbish to create shadowed silhouettes. Their most recognisable art is their self-portraits created by making assemblages, then pointing light to create projected shadows to portray the resemblance to their facial features.
Heather has a scrapbook of her inspiration, noting that the Greenpeace PR campaign Choke was influential. Greenpeace’s Choke campaign imitates Coca Cola’s advertising to target the large drinks company trying to encourage them to reduce their plastic footprint.
Luke adds, “Greenpeace worked with photographers. I think Chris Jordan took pictures of albatrosses and seagulls which had died from plastic indigestion and as they’ve died, they have decomposed and all you can see is it bloated with plastic. It is photography work. However, it is not nice imagery, but it is effective and informative.”
Luke talks about a community-led project called The Bristol Whales: “It is an installation sculpture piece made of 70,000 plastic bottles which have upcycled from Bath Half Marathon and Bristol 10K."
“They are these huge whales in centre of Bristol that look like they are leaping out of water.”
Luke comments that their inspired art “has shown people that this is an issue and that it needs to be dealt with.”
Has environmental art changed their perceptions of waste and recycling?
Their art has made them consider their individual actions and how they perceive their own waste. Luke says: “I do take a lot of measures to be as plastic free as possible. But it is quite shocking because I have been collecting rubbish for my artwork. You see how quickly it builds up even in a conscious home.”
They hope that their eco-art and other similar projects will spread awareness and encourage others to look at their own lifestyles.
“You don’t necessarily see the impact you’re having by dropping that small piece of litter, that one straw but when everyone does it, then it does pile up. There isn’t an issue if we don’t know it’s there or we ignore it,” says Luke.
The future
Luke and Heather’s artwork and working at Ecotopia has motivated them to take the zero-waste movement further.
“We want to open our own zero-waste store, similar to EcoTopia, but in Manchester,” says Luke
Luke and Heather aim to open their plastic free shop December this year, if they secure their funding.
“At the moment there isn’t a zero-waste store in the centre of Manchester, though there is one Altrincham Market and one in Prestwich.
“They are doing well. These are both half an hour or one hour drives out of the city centre, so if we can open one in this centre it will be more accessible for people.” They hope to be near to the universities to help encourage young people to adopt plastic-free lifestyles.