Robot Writes

On Monday the 16th March, after leaving my camera at someone else’s house, twice, I was finally able to get out in the spring air and do a site survey of the area of Sugarwell Hill that interests me. Having gathered a lot of pictures of the available material, it soon becomes clear that there is a lot of rubbish on the site. My idea of a little peninsula of nature protruding into our urban domain is a romanticisation, and what’s really happening is an ongoing battle between nature and the endless tide of rubbish left by almost anyone that has anything to do with the place. it is the tragedy of the commons played out in the real world. lets look at some of that rubbish first before we go any further:

lots of this, some of it’s mirrored

lots of the usual rubbish, ie drinks containers and junk food wrappers

as well as plentiful evidence of the beverage of choice for the socially immobile

Fly tipping is not a passtime for drunken entomologists by the way

There’s a real sadness about this, lost memories, and a bunch of questions: what happened? where are they now? doesn’t someone want this back?

one of the reasons for being here is to investigate the possibility of using on site materials for creative purposes. and already i see a potential picture frame

or perhaps something to display that coveted Duchamp sketch

also plenty of pallette’s (see what i did there – art supplies geddit?!)

also known as the ‘poor mans futon’

however there’s still something for the more conventional ‘derelichte’

actually, while we’re here, nice recursion

something from our ‘ready to wear’ line

in the automobile category we have at least three different car wheels

as well as hub caps

a liscence plate

and another unrelated plate

another wheel, of a different kind

something for that added spark

and so on

and so on

and then we get to the problem with plastic which is that it ends up everywhere

or this bit, whatever it is

in fact it’s the rubbish adding all the colour round here

and what the hell is this?

and is it any relation to this guy

He’d better be careful, it’s not safe to play around here

and so we come to one of the most difficult aspects of dealing with the site

besides the rubbish being bad for the environment and making the place unsightly, it’s also dangerous to handle.

By the time i had finished surveying the site and recording all the details (full set can be viewed here) it became apparent that the number one resource would be junk and reclaimed materials. It also became apparent that the most interesting and relevant story here is the untold one, the global one, of overwhelming pollution. So for me the brief has now concentrated down to ‘how can i use the rubbish of the site to tell people a story that addresses the problem, in a way that lets them know how special this place is’

at the moment i’m torn between to figurative sculptures, one where a little wickerman, animated by the sugar well, fights with a trash monster in a battle to the death, and one where it’s just the trash monster (again mythologically animated by the supernatural force of the sugar well), possibly watering  a bunch of daffodils. the reasons for doing this are:

easily available materials

materials don’t require special treatment, ie painting. they tell the story

doesn’t matter if the sculpture is destroyed – it’s going to have to be ephemeral and in all likelihood whatever goes up there will almost certainly be reduced to cinders overnight simply for not being ‘normal’

the matter seems to affect me as much as it does the ecology of the site.  i feel the connection and the desire to do something coupled with the frustration of being just one person. i am hoping that while making trash into a sculpture doesn’t solve the problem, maybe it will highlight in such a way as to bring it to the attention of those who can deal with it

so there are my researches and outcomes of the research. and if your very good, i might tell you the story of the trash monster. but that kids, is for another day…