Reclaiming Sculpture

Three dimensional artwork in the majority of schools increasingly seems to be left behind, possibly because of the lack of space and time needed and often the cost of materials. So as part of Art Week  in schools this summer I am promoting the idea of recycling unwanted objects into sculptures. I see this as my next quest - to share the vast assortment of materials donated, collected and found for the Heavy Plant Crossing with young people to make sculptures.

My first workshop reclaiming objects this week was with twelve 15 year old pupils at Penicuik High School. This was their first opportunity to make sculpture and to work collaboratively. Initially bemused by the strange array of materials they quickly picked up objects and began to fathom out how they could join them together. Abandoning  pre-conceived ideas of what they might construct e.g. unicorns etc they gradually let the materials suggest what might be possible. The ideas began to take the most wonderful shapes and within a few hours we had three very different  humorous sculptures with evocative titles -Colin the Tourist - Jealous White Lies - C644 LTN - each with fabulous back stories. 

Definitely the way to go in introducing sculpture in schools, especially as reclaiming materials is  free and inspires such imaginative artworks and associated story lines with a strong sustainable message.

Inspired names......

Thanks to everyone for the fabulous names which rival any plant label names.

Explorer             Sarah            Grace                          GM
Plantastic           Freddie          Car Plant                      Tamla

Wanderer             John             Trundleweed                    Jan
Hooveronimous        Ian              Morph

Florian              Stephanie        Stranger                       Steven

Morrissey            MM               Sojourner Truth.               Susanne

Changeling           lionpops         Euphrasia Eye-bright           Claudia

Poly                 MD               Black Night                    Caroline

Dizzy                CB               Pipe Dream  Pipio insolitus    LS

Barton’s Bloomers    AM               Lazylizzie
Wheel-plant                           Botanical Billy                Haywain
Doobiesaurous        Alex             Horace                         Stuart
Black turn ripples   AV               Contraption                    LL
Venus pie trap       Malia            Whirling Dervish               SG
Mistral              WW               Rhododendroid Perambulenta     WMB

Steamwheel           Anon             Everything Out                 Joe
Hector               Ian              Beauty form the Beast
Mobile Gimigog       Ireland          Spiderplant                    LL
         

The winning name was 'Mistral' - inspired by the  breeze that picked up outside of the Natural History Museum which suddenly began to turn the flower heads assembled from various fans. 

'Mistral' was put forward by William White - please let me have your postal address your prize awaits - the first cut flower stem and a collection of artisan chocolates.

Comments on the movie.....

received via e mail over the last few weeks: 


I love the film – in particular, people’s responses to the piece and your arrival at the CFS. J Hampson.  Senior Strategy Officer, Arts and Culture RBKC

What a fab idea ! What's happening to it next ? I'd like it to grow and grow ! S Shotton

Just watched your Heavy Plant film & so enjoyed it. It has a great feel of the progression of the idea & the playful spirit of it's making & reception. C Rankin

Loved the film. I think I’d like to make a wonderful machine like yours! You looked really at home making your way through the streets – you must do this sort of thing regularly!

I have built two generator-bikes and use them in my science shows. My latest idea is for a solar powered scooter lets talk.  Tom www.technologytom.com

Just watched film which is really lovely, such a lot of laughter, and some great faces/expressions/people.  Bravo!  fun it is.
J Ashdown

It was a pleasure to help and the video is truly magnificent  - I so wish I could have been there...such a manic time of year. I can't wait to see what you next ideas are!

Let me know what's next - I love your work 

Abby Hazell Garden Design  studio@abigailhazell.com

 

Hi Julia - fab video and was that Jilly as well? Lovely to see the kids getting involved and lots of people interacting with it! S Hallberg

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!

Out for an evening stroll in between the showers

After a long day in the studio checking over and reconfiguring the plants flower heads, I decided to chance the showers and head up the hill for our third road test.

 

















My thinking being that if the plant and I can make it up such a steep hill on a rough single track road, we will be fine along the smooth and relatively flat footpaths of the capital.

The road test went well, the plant towing smoothly and keeping stable even when having to pull over into the grass verge to let bemused cars and tractors pass by. Phew!

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.

Origin of the Project

Taking the long view I can trace the origin of this project back to working in my Grans garden as a child, where I became fascinated by plants and flowers and her care for them, watering, taking cuttings, staking  and setting up wires for them to grow along. Most of all I remember how one  year I watched her dig a hole next to her Hydrangea plant into which she buried a handful of copper nails, her explanation bemused me at the time as she told me it was the nails that made the flowers turn blue.

Anything as crazy stays in your head and has to be worth investigating and now I find myself immersed in trying to understand the origins of different species of plants and the hybridization of them both natural and cultivated.