Exhibition Insight... Material Metamorphosis
In a world grappling with the growing environmental impact of discarded plastic and waste materials, practical solutions to the impending crisis are sorely needed and are very much at the forefront of social commentary. While recycling is not necessarily the answer to our environmental concerns, the staggering surplus of waste across industry and domestic life has highlighted the need for innovation and creativity in finding ways to manage such materials more responsibly.
Material Metamorphosis is showing at JamFactory Seppeltsfield until 8 May 2023
Words by Caitlin Eyre
Artists and designers play a key role in reshaping the public perception of waste by transforming previously discarded and devalued refuse materials into treasured craft and design objects. Inspired by their collective fascination with transforming waste, the artists featured in Material Metamorphosis are guided by the material possibilities of their chosen refuse in the creation of exciting new works of art. Spanning diverse waste materials such as polystyrene, plastics, aluminium coffee pods, reclaimed clay, recycled glass, plastic bags, fishing nets and timber shavings, this exhibition features works by Polly Dymond, Lisa Furno, Sue Garrard, Rebecca Hartman-Kearns, Annika Karskens, Peta Kruger, Xanthe Murphy, Numbulwar Numburindi Arts and Bolaji Teniola.
Polly Dymond is a Tarndanya Adelaide-based contemporary artist working across small objects and wearables. She is an alumna of JamFactory’s Associate Program in the Jewellery and Metal Studio. Grounded by a deep love of the natural environment and driven by inquisition, Dymond embraces the alchemy of experimental materials and processes, and is particularly drawn to the creative possibilities of polystyrene and discarded plastics.
In her most recent works, Dymond utilises street-salvaged discarded polystyrene and single-use plastics combined with traditional metalsmithing techniques to reimagine waste and elevate obscure materials that are often overlooked. Using the laborious process of electroforming, Dymond entombs polystyrene beneath layers of hard copper armour to produce highly textured objects that are an intriguing blend of contradictions: seemingly weighty yet light, recognisable yet foreign, once discarded yet now precious. “Seeking donations and acting as a waste diversion, I procure discarded materials from my community, which enables me to bring others into my practice and share my concern,” Dymond says. “Through my practice, I seek to prompt reflection on consumption patterns, perceptions of value, material lifecycles and interrogate economic interest at the expense of a sustainable future.”
Lisa Furno, Eternal Playtime Neckpiece #3, 2023 weathered second hand cubby house, wax cord, 290 x 5 x 380 mm, Photo: Connor Patterson
Sue Garrard, Plumage #1, 2023 reclaimed aluminium bakeware, acrylic, low-temp enamel, brass, sterling silver, surgical steel posts, 120 x 40 mm, Photo: Connor Patterson
Polly Dymond, Foliose Wall Jewellery (large), 2023 electroformed copper, street salvaged waste polystyrene, copper paint, 170 x 145 x 45 mm, Photo: Connor Patterson
Lisa Furno is a contemporary jeweller who lives and works on Bundjalung Country in NSW. Playful, colourful and flamboyant, Furno’s wearable objects are made from an array of used and second-hand plastics that seek to question society’s longstanding relationship with overconsumption and our throw away culture. Her practice connects concepts of adornment and installation, inviting the viewer not just to see and think, but to experience, interact and collaborate.
The neckpieces that Furno presents in Material Metamorphosis are composed of carefully shaped pieces of a weathered second-hand plastic cubby house and pool collected from the side of the road. “Familiarity surrounds these objects as my daughter and her friends played with them for years in our backyard,” Furno says. “Over time, the plastic started to break up, crack and disintegrate, with this mass of plastics destined for landfill – an overwhelming realisation and key catalyst for this work.” Through her use of discarded plastics, Furno highlights the need to question our relationship with consumerism, understand its long term social, ethical and environmental impact, and examine the role that our own personal responsibility and accountability plays in in the growing problem.
Sue Garrard is a primarily self-taught jeweller and Studio Tenant at JamFactory Seppeltsfield on the traditional lands of the Ngadjuri, Peramangk and Kaurna people. Working across the areas of jewellery, printmaking and installation, Garrard’s practice is largely focused on the use of recycled and reclaimed materials. In a world overflowing with single-use and throwaway items, Garrard sees discarded materials as exciting opportunities for making and repurposing waste into beautiful wearable objects.
In her most recent collection of worn objects, Garrard uses found discarded materials to reflect the brightly coloured flora of our natural surroundings and encourage the viewer to take a closer look at the world around us. Each piece has been handcrafted from recycled and reclaimed materials of humble origins that have been transformed into objects of beauty and delight: Tupperware lids have morphed into vivid flowers and pewter mugs into tiny gumnuts. “The reclaimed materials behave in unexpected ways, constantly presenting an artistic challenge to overcome,” Garrard says. “My work reflects the intrinsic intimacy that is experienced through the making process, which is akin to the closeness and connection we can have with nature when we take our time to really look and appreciate our environments.”
“The reclaimed materials behave in unexpected ways, constantly presented an artistic challenge to overcome”
Rebecca Hartman-Kearns is a Tarndanya Adelaide-based artist working in the field of glass. Her practice is characterised by a passion for exploring new ideas and creating ways of pushing past boundaries within the making process, concept development and presentation. Inspired by incorporating sustainability in her practice, Hartman-Kearns uses recycled blown glass and bio resin created from 20% canola-derived ingredients.
In the works presented in Material Metamorphosis, Hartman-Kearns addresses the significant sustainability issues that arise in studio glassmaking by finding ways of utilising coloured glass waste. Unlike clear glass, which can be remelted and reused, coloured glass is a by-product of glass blowing that cannot be recycled in the studio due to the chemical compounds used to make colours. The coloured blown glass fragments are suspended in plant-based bio resin, which are usually made from corn or soybean by-products generated by bio-diesel fuel refinement, allowing Hartman-Kearns to marry two very different industry waste products within her work. “I am particularly passionate about environmental events and creating work that relates to the world around us and the effects we continue to have on our environment,” Hartman-Kearns says. “Recycling the blown coloured glass with Bio resin in my new work feels like a great use of the two materials, as well as lowering the impact on the environment – synthetic glass meets blown glass.”
Rebecca Hartman-Kearns, GM0 #15, GMO #14, GM0 #4, GMO #10, GMO #11 (left to right), 2023 bio resin, recycled glass, 100 x 90 mm, Photo: Connor Patterson
Annika Karskens is an emerging artist living and working in Sydney on the country of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. With a background in object design, Karskens has grounded her creative practice in bringing value to ordinary materials through craftsmanship. She is particularly focused on the material possibilities of discarded aluminium coffee capsules and has recently begun developing her sculptural art into wearable objects.
In her most recent collection of jewellery and worn objects, Karskens explores Biophilia (the idea that humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life) within the context of environmental catastrophe. Aluminium production is a highly polluting industry that largely makes products that are made to be discarded – products that have a relatively short usage compared with the time they spend in landfill. By using discarded aluminium coffee capsules to craft botanicals, Karskens links her representations of nature with the destructive human habits that destroy them. “Drawing from the luminous qualities of aluminium, my work contrasts the ugliness of pollution with the beauty of fine craftsmanship,’ Karskens says. “These artworks and wearables challenge the viewer to reinterpret a waste product as a precious keepsake.”
Rebecca Hartman-Kearns, DISPLACED - Wood, 2023 bio resin, recycled glass, found objects, 200 x 120 x 100 mm, Photo: Connor Patterson
Annika Karskens, Garland Hair Pin (warm tones), 2022 repurposed aluminium, brass wire, alloy wire, polymer clay, 115 x 50 x 5 mm, Photo: Connor Patterson
Peta Kruger, Vibrant shadow (series) #1, 2023 discarded soft plastics, found frame, 295 x 245 mm, Photo courtesy of the artist
Peta Kruger is a Tarndanya Adelaide-based contemporary artist and jeweller with a background in graphic design and illustration. She is an alumna of JamFactory’s Associate Program in the Jewellery and Metal Studio. In her wall-mounted textile works, Kruger uses discarded soft plastics that might otherwise be destined for waterways and landfill to create highly textured, colourful artworks that interrogate crucial contemporary environmental issues.
Recently departing from her jewellery practice to explore textiles, Kruger utilises plastic fibres salvaged from commercial shopping bags to create highly textured, multi-coloured wall-mounted works. With the appearance of abstract paintings, the surface of the pieces are adorned with contrasting strips of plastic fibres that have been stitched carefully into place. These beautifully crafted artworks are Kruger’s attempt to repurpose single-use soft plastics – a staggering 85% of which end up in landfill. “My recent turn to textiles highlights the issue of waste plastic and confronts my own growing eco-anxiety,” Kruger says. “These pieces are made entirely from waste plastic sourced from households, streets, parks and bins that would have otherwise been destined for stormwater drains or landfill.” Kruger’s recent Vibrant Shadow series of wall works was inspired by bush walks that she took in Tasmania’s wilderness during a 2022 artist residency in Hobart after being awarded the Hadley’s Art Prize.
Xanthe Murphy, Landscape in Reclaim, 7, 2023 one bucket of clay reclaim - terracotta, black midfire, white stoneware, 370 x 110 x 80 mm, Photo: Connor Patterson
Numbulwar Numburindi Arts is a community owned and run art centre based in Numbulwar on the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory. NNA was born from the community’s desire to practice and engage with traditional culture and is a space for artistic and cultural expression. Champions of fibre art, NNA artists marry traditional naturally-dyed and locally-harvested pandanus with bright and bold plastic ‘ghost nets’ retrieved from Numbulwar’s shoreline to produce intricately woven baskets, dillybags and sculptural forms.
‘Ghost nets’, a term for fishing nets that are hacked off commercial fishing vessels and abandoned in the water, are believed to make up 30-50% of all ocean plastic and, although a significant global issue, are particularly problematic in some areas. Ocean currents carry ghost nets from all over the world into the Gulf of Carpentaria, where they harm vulnerable marine life, damage coral reefs and wash up on beaches, where they are buried in the sand or entangled in trees. The plastic from ghost nets takes 600 years to break down, shedding microplastics into the environment and causing further harm to people, animals, birds and marine life. The innovative artists of NMA have taken steps to resolve the issue of ghost nets locally as a modern act of caring for Country through their traditional weaving practices, the skills of which have been learnt from an early age and passed down through the generations from grandmothers and mothers. The brilliantly coloured and intricately worked fibre crafts of the NNA are a wonderful example of how the contemporary issue of plastic waste can be curtailed by employing traditional knowledge and methods of making.
Bolaji Teniola, Sun-moon Vessel, 2023 American walnut, pine, red gum, birch plywood, 255 x 110 x 110, Photo courtesy of the artist
Material Metamorphosis is showing at Seppeltsfield until 8 May 2023
Xanthe Murphy is a Tarndanya Adelaide-based ceramic and object designer. She is an alumna of JamFactory’s Associate Program in the Ceramic Studio. Informed by her multidisciplinary training in ceramics, textiles and object design, Murphy centres her practice around the question of how to be a sustainable designer in times of mass consumerism.
For her most recent body of work, Landscape in Reclaim, Murphy has created a series of wall-mounted sculptures that have been formed from clay offcuts and shavings from the production of previous ceramic objects. “At many stages during the production process, ceramics can be the very antithesis of sustainable,” Murphy says. “As a ceramicist, I constantly ask myself how I can be more sustainable in my practice, with clay recycling or ‘reclaim’ being an integral part of my approach.” The multi-coloured reclaimed clay used in these pieces has been left in a layered and largely unmixed state to preserve the tiny incidental landscapes formed in the marbled surface. The swirling islands of colour between the peaks and valleys of the surface are a celebration of imperfection and offer a lesson in letting go of the desire to control artwork outcomes by allowing the material to drive the result.
Numbulwar Numburindi - Mawungumain Nundhirribala, Wulbung (Basket), 2022 ghost nets, 85 x 260 mm, Photo: Connor Patterson
Numbulwar Numburindi - Rose Wilfred, Wulbung (Basket) (64-22), 2022 ghost nets, pandanus, natural dye, 80 x 270 mm, Photo: Connor Patterson
Bolaji Teniola is an emerging interdisciplinary furniture and industrial designer. Currently based in Tarndanya Adelaide, Teniola is an alumnus of JamFactory’s Associate Program in the Furniture Studio. Always in search of pragmatic solutions, Teniola finds joy in allowing the process of making to dictate the result and utilises an investigative approach to traverse various mediums within his deigns. A deep curiosity for materiality and the manufacturing process sit at the centre of Teniola’s design practice.
In his series In Search of Form, Teniola presents eight sculptural vessels crafted from timber shavings – a ubiquitous natural waste product of timber furniture making. “Sustainability was at the forefront when developing these shaved timber forms,” Teniola says. “Constructed with a homemade adhesive, the focus was to utilise what was at hand and display the production potential of discarded materials.” Using found objects and handmade rudimentary moulds, Teniola creates new objects that mimic everyday domestic items, such as bowls and vases, while allowing the timber shavings to maintain their material and aesthetic character. The unvarnished finish encourages further transformation to occur as the timber shavings respond to their surrounding environments, each component expanding, contracting, curling and wilting based on climate conditions.