28 September to 4 October
I travelled down to the Mothership, deep in the Dorset countryside, for a week-long residency. This live/work studio space, owned and run by Anna Best, is set overlooking a small river, with woods on the opposite bank, located approximately 1 mile outside the village of Powerstock. This space, without internet access, is ideal for quiet reflection and focussing on artwork.
I spent a week walking in the countryside and on the coast, collecting litter, cataloguing it and exploring the idea of litter picking as an art form. This enabled me to simultaneously collect materials for my assemblage work.
Over the course of 4 days out litter picking I collected 1095 pieces, including 136 plastic bottle caps and 112 pieces of marine/fishing rope. In addition, 361 of the items collected had been in the environment so long that they were no longer identifiable.
I do not yet know how I will use this information or the pieces I have kept, but just on a documentary level I find this shocking and upsetting. It is clear, that in the areas where more people gather or pass through there is a far bigger problem with litter in the environment than more remote areas of the countryside.
https://mothershipresidencies.tumblr.com
