Reborn

The world has been facing an environmental crisis and I passionately dedicate my work to increase social awareness about this problem. I am a mother of two young children, and I ask myself everyday in what world will they live in  10,20 or 50 years time. I believe it is my generation's responsibility to start clearing the mountains of rubbish created from the human desire for a comfortable and convenient life.

It frustrates me how other human beings cannot be more cautious towards the environment we all live in. I collect single-use plastic waste along my walks, and I encourage my local community to save bottle tops from their households so that I can up cycle them in my projects. Looking at the vivid colours of bottle tops on the pavement, I can see extraordinary patterns that will emerge during the melting process.

I also incorporate a zero waste policy in my work.

I want my creations to provide both visual and emotional experiences but also provoke intellectual battles within the audience; to make people wonder how such a simple object as a plastic bottle top can become a statement pair of earrings or colourful wall art. My ultimate goal is to raise awareness in people and encourage them to repurpose the waste they produce. I want people to stop in the middle of their busy lives and redirect their attention to the environmental foot print we leave behind.

The wall art I submit today is my first ever mosaic, which is the extended scale of my designer work. I plan to produce more art pieces incorporating faulty items that come off my jewellery production line.

Art is very subjective and can be perceived differently by every single individual. What distinguishes me from other artists is the unique combination of the techniques and patterns I apply. The mosaic itself is influenced by Islamic art, however each block in my piece has its random colour pattern that can not be recreated. It is my hope that the scope and diversity of my work and materials in this piece and my other works act as an inspiration to others. To mirror the scope, diversity and vision that we can collectively achieve in turning our focus towards repurposing plastics and other materials that if left discarded leave such a damaging impact on our environment and planet.

My art piece represents global eco-consciousness, each tile depicting randomly selected individuals from the general population. The colours symbolise the various levels of people's environmental awareness. We can see the whole spectrum of shades where lighter colours represent people who are actively involved in ecological issues; the darker ones symbolise people who do not care of the problem. The blue and green tiles stand for the forest and ocean protectors, and the reds are dedicated to the people who approach the issue with lots of passion and dedication. The contrast created in the middle of the piece illustrates the interaction between people. I have noticed that often eco-aware individuals are surrounded by complete ignorants in real life. The gold threads/leaves in the middle represent the propagation of environmental knowledge, and my hope to improve the situation, raising more awareness.
The mosaic itself has been influenced by Islamic Art, which I have observed during my travels around Iran and the Middle East. The square shapes were chosen after observing my son's Minecraft game. The pixel world, which is a characteristic of graphic design in the 80s now has made its return. I am also a great fan of Impressionists and the recent work of Yayoi Kusama, therefore constructing a piece from little elements occurred effortlessly to me.
Each square, like every human, is unique due to the randomness of the melting process. It also represents the randomness of human creations from different mixtures of genes. We are all versatile even though all of us are moulded within the boundaries of the human body.
The piece itself is very imperfect, the audience can easily notice the skewed position of the mosaic on the base. Also, the squares are not exact in their shapes. The resin application is not finished in many places. Through producing such an imperfect work I want to spread the message that sustainable living is destined to only ever be imperfect. I want to invite the audience to look at the whole piece and choose one square that represents their eco-awareness. Some of the squares, especially on the outer part remind me of J.M.W. Turner's paintings and his very characteristic colour palette.

The project was created both from recycled materials and from ones I have purchased but have not used in the way I originally planned to. It is also an example of incorporating a zero waste policy in my jewellery design work.
Base - an old piece of wood from office furniture coloured with leftovers of black and gold spray paint.
Mosaic - 483 5cm x 5cm squares made from remains of melted plastic bottle tops, gold flakes and epoxy resin that is used to produce my jewellery.

The art piece was designed and fully produced by myself. However, there were few people who through discussions and support contributed to the development of my idea. I believe they also should be mentioned: Edyta McRae, Anna Waluda-Gil, Jolanta Sudak, Beatrix Konya, Christian Howard, Daniel Keshani,  Conrad Harshaw and Simon Morgan from Metre Squared ARTS HUB CIC