Recycling Sculpture Workshops - Saturday 25th May

RE/form

Recycling Sculpture Workshops - Steeple Arts Centre, Fife

Two half day (3 hours) workshops for young people aged between 10-16 years.  Students will learn to use reclaimed objects and materials to make sculptures. Julia will begin with basic sculpture construction, help choose materials then help combine and assemble. She will demonstrate ways to connect different materials before setting a few simple challenges to begin making recycled sculptures

By the end of the session students will have constructed at least one Recycled Sculpture to take home and will have learnt about artists who have used discarded objects to make sculptures.

Students will be asked to bring any unwanted/discarded objects found or given to them for use in the workshop. A wide variety of materials will also be provided. Please come in suitable workshop clothing.

                                               

         The course will be taught by Artist Julia Barton who has made work from galleries, gardens, an American jail, to a bridge over the River Tyne and on the streets of London. A selection of projects can be seen at www.julia_barton.co.uk  Julia was recently featured in The Times.                   

Saturday 25th May: morning session 10 – 1  and  afternoon 2-5   Fee £30

Course numbers are limited to a maximum of 6 to ensure a good learning experience.  Minimum numbers are required for the course to run so it is helpful if students can book their place early.

For information and bookings please contact Julia at: 

julia_barton@btinternet.com  07977997605 

Introduction & Taster session with Julia making recycled sculpture after school on Thurs 21 March 2013 6-7pm  

Introduction and Taster session with Julia making recycled sculpture after school on Thurs 21 March 2013 6-7pm 

Steeple Arts Centre, Fife, Scotland

Artist Julia Barton will be showing stems of her recycled plant sculpture Heavy Plant Crossing which travelled through the streets of London May 2012 as part of the Chelsea Fringe Festival. 

She will demonstrate how she selects used materials and assembles them to make fun recycled sculptures. People will be welcome to browse and select materials to make a small simple relief sculpture to take away. She hopes young people will want to join her in a workshop later in the spring.

2013-14

Heavy Plant Crossing is now available to book for new expeditions in gardens, festivals and event. Call 07977997609

 

Mid Summer - will see the the Plant and Julia undertaking an exciting expedition through the National Trusts Wallington Estate in Northumberland on June 20th-21st as part of  the Festival of North East 2013.

Julia invites visitors to join her and her Plant on an expedition through Wallington Hall’s woodlands and gardens.  It is a plant-finding expedition with a difference.

On the first day she will be building her ‘plant’ and setting off with the estate map into the depths of the East wood to locate and closely examine trees with intriguing habits and characteristics such as spongy  bark and giant leaves that she has heard about through idiosyncratic Trevelyan Tree Book.

She will suggest the  origins of significant finds and whether they might have arrived as seed from other plant finders travelling the world or cuttings from famous gardens nearer to home during the past 250 years.
 

On the second day the expedition will travel into the interior of the Wallington Estate into the prized Walled Garden, to enjoy the vast variety of plants in this protected terrain,  to revel in the colours and forms of the exotic plants in the micro climate of the Conservatory. And to finally ceremonially peg down a cutting from her unusual  Plant in the nursery beds of the garden before re tracing the expedition route.

Original plant-finding expeditions were supported by the Trevelyan family, different members of which were passionate about the garden and plants  at their Wallington home. Charles Trevelyan was also committed to opening up the countryside to people and gave Wallington Hall to the National Trust

The event is part of the  WALK ON: Walking Art Northumberland  an     arts event organised and funded by VARC Visual Arts in Rural Communities

 

Heavy Plant Crossing - the movie

At last the Heavy Plant Crossing - the movie is on line. Enjoy! Let us know what you think.



In under 5 minutes the film encapsulates the process from finding and reclaiming objects to assemble a mechanical plant, which is  hybridized by its keeper as she tows it through the streets and parks of London to RHS Chelsea in their attempt to win Best Plant in Show with a finale propagation party at Worlds End Kitchen Garden.


Once you have seen it on line you may want to venture to the Garden of Disorientation to see it projected onto on the walls of the City, before the Chelsea Fringe Festival ends on the 9th May.

Artists on the move

While the plant is safely bedded out in the Garden of Disorientation I returned north to catch up on preparing sculptures for the 'Expressions of Movement' art exhibition at The Grove, Hertfordshire and heard about a Nomadic Village of international artist's that had set up an encampment to make art  in the small rural village of  Wolsingham, Co Durham.  The project is run by Klaus Maehring (Lead Artist and founder) from ORP/Austria and is supported by ISIS Arts

The encampment comprised of a collection of artists caravans, tents, shelters, recycled fibre glass containers, nestled along the bank of the wooded beck running through the village with doors wide open, artists freely invited you in to view their spaces of work & travel, containing, films, installations, performances all touching on ideas surrounding nomadism . 

Using this beautiful location as inspiration, material, stage,  seemed to me extoll the excitement of journeying to new places to meet and engage with new people.









This is excitement is a feeling I recognise from my recent journey with my Heavy Plant and which I am now reflecting and  wondering how where we might go now. I certainly feel that my journey through the parks and streets of Kensington & Chelsea is only the beginning of a much larger journey which I am beginning.

Joining in the debate

Festival Gardens:  What’s the Point? Tuesday 5^th June, 7pm –

A debate hosted by Festival Director Tim Richardson with Marco Antonini (Land I) – veterans of conceptual garden designs having shown at Metis, Westonbirt & Chaumont; Julia Barton – Sculptor and Westonbirt show garden designer, installations include Chelsea Fringe and Holker Hall; Deborah Nagan (uncommon) – designer of the Garden of Disorientation and also of conceptual gardens in Luxembourg and Canada; Tony Heywood (Heywood & Condie) – designer of a garden at Westonbirt and this year at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Tickets  are free but RSVP to Deborah@uncommonland.co.uk

Transplanting update

Polymorphus mutabils 'Mistral' is now bedding-in well at the Garden of Disorientation, at 61 Charterhouse St EC1, opposite Smithfield Market, surrounded by Mentha  spitica.

Heavy Plant Crossing will be on exhibition here until the 5th May after which it will return to the studio for further modifications  and development with further trials ready for its next quest.

Garden of Disorientation Open from 11am-6pm daily; late opening til 10pm on the 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30, 31 May and 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9 June

Reactions on the Streets

Smiles & amusement - exclaiming to friends over the phone what they were seeing

Cordial banter - often beginning with:

'What is it?'

'Does it generate electricity?'

'Is it art?'

'Its crazy....I love it?'

'What drugs are you on?'

Questions which offered fantastic starting points to  discuss the event, the plants construction, the quest to win Best in Show at RHS Chelsea, to discuss reclaiming and recycling  objects.

Interaction:

Children seemed naturally drawn to the plant encouraged to explore the flower heads, they were keen to touch the plant soon discovering which they could spin, move and carry along side us when trundling along.

They loved working out what the objects making the flower heads had been and what I could possibly make next.

On our way South.....

All packed into a few bags , our journey began cold and wet in the Northumberland hills.

As we headed down the A1 we began to cross the climatic zones, which where marked by increasing numbers of  trees in leaf and flower.  By the time we reached  Watford the May blossom and cherry trees began to brighten the horizon of grey cloud .





Stopping for breaks I glimpsed the delightful stand of Candelabra Primulas in a fabulous garden just as the sun came out . There's an apt great name... still hunting for the right name . Hoping that some more will appear on the blog by the morning .

On reaching London tonight the temperature was wonderfully much increased and the first road name I noticed was 'Flower Mews' very apt and heartening for the beginning of  our quest tomorrow. See you at Hyde Park 10 am sharp!

Project Event

A box will arrive in London with its maker and keeper. The keeper will open the box and construct a mechanical plant on wheels to travel through the streets and parks of Kensington and Chelsea. The keeper will constantly appraise and make impromptu stops to adjust the plant.

Hybridization performances will take place in parks, streets and in gardens at scheduled places and times. The keeper will re configure particular elements of the plant, changing its form each time.


The aim is to perfect the plant and reach the RHS show to win ‘Best Plant in Show’ category.