“Oh, I thought it was a second hand store?”
To those wondering what it is exactly that we forage; as an art space, we gather like-minded artists with a thirst for repurposing not only found, but also disused and otherwise neglected paraphernalia. Carefully curated works by those sensitive to our culture’s overuse of the disposable, our collective artists have a proven record of innovative use and reuse of what would otherwise be considered old or even trash.
A prime example would be Catherine Large (Metalsmith) who reuses silver and precious metals, and incorporates antique lace, vintage buttons and pre-loved jewellery with vitreous enamel to create beautiful adornments for both body and home. But let’s not forget the car bodies! Foraging stranded Toyota carcasses, and re-enamelling the pieces to their former colour, stunning brooches, earrings and necklaces emerge.
Then there’s Natalie Billing, constantly experimenting with collected fallen leaves to give a rustic imprint to her handstitched scarves and printed stationery. Immortalising our iconic trees as both useful and even wearable. This sense of adventure in pure alchemy takes on a deeper meaning than pure recycling.
Kirstin Farr is just one of our ceramicists re–using clay to create her own techniques in raku firing and experimental glazes all in her home studio. Not even her breakages escape a platform in the gallery as she practises the Japanese technique of “kintsugi” – the art of repairing broken work with gold inlay – a metaphor for embracing the scars and imperfections of life.
A man with many titles and talents, as well as being a staunch advocate for marine conservation, Tony Rice uses his kite making skills to create bamboo sculptures of our ocean creatures complete with the human trash they are doomed to swallow. A true testimony to how much humanity wastes and the direct effect it has on our wildlife.
So, our representative artists and their art have risen to the challenge of ecological mindfulness. Not only making something old, new again; but rescuing it from landfill and preventing it from remaining a blemish on our way of life.
