Introduction

INTRODUCTION

My name is Athena Xoufarides. I am in my final year of the BA (Hons) in Visual Arts by Negotiated Study at Birmingham Institute of Art & Design (Bournville) in Birmingham.

My main focus of this final year has been the creation of a public interactive water feature.

The thinking behind this project derives from my personal interest and observations into man’s effect upon the landscape, which is constantly being changed through mining, excavation and world-wide land clearance.  This present work refers particularly to the way in which quarries and landfill sites effect the natural environment. I became especially interested in what happens to the waste that has been generated by mankind’s and society’s needs for the earth’s natural resources.

Man has plundered the earth with dramatic consequences for the natural environment, the creatures living in it and their habitat.  A lot of what is taken from the earth is thrown away after use and goes into landfill.

Recently, the reclaiming of recyclable materials such as certain plastics, as well as valuable commodities such as tin, which become harder to find as we deplete the world’s natural resources.  This shortage has even led to the re-opening of some of the old landfill sites to reclaim what was once considered waste.

Thus what comes out of the ground goes back into it.  Hence my project title, ‘Inside Out, Outside In’, reflects this cyclical arrangement. The recycling of the water on my installation emphasises this point and addresses the themes of Recycling, Reclamation and Conservation.  These are important considerations for Tarmac Quarry, as they have to deal with landfill of their own natural waste, only degradable materials from construction sites are allowed.  No domestic waste is allowed into the landfill so that the environmental habitat of the local wild life is protected. Hence the installation is situated on the Jubilee site which is a natural landfill.  Tarmac also recycles the water by adding various natural chemicals to de-acidify the water to enable it to be used for washing the machinery and damping which keeps the dust down when dry and windy.  Dust funnels would make for hazardous working conditions and safety is a major factor.

Conservation of the landfill sites by restoring them to nature to encourage wild life to return.  The rare blue butterfly, for example, has returned to the restored sites.  This butterfly cannot be found on or near domestic landfill sites, which proves that Tarmac have got the conditions right for the return of rare breeds of animals and plants.  They also mark out walkways for the public to enjoy the scenery without spoiling the environment.

After discussions with Mike Gale, the Zone Manager of ‘Tarmac’ Quarry, Mancetter, Atherstone, it was decided that I create a water feature at a local quarry’s natural landfill site. I have been commissioned by Tarmac, who have agreed to supply and pay for most of the materials and printing costs, as well as the accompanying designed board.  Mike wants the Installation to become part of the Quarryman’s Walk, which will be associated with the North Arden Heritage trail. 

The water feature, which I am presenting, makes use of materials and objects such as plastic, tin, metal, wood and an abandoned shopping trolley. The installation is interactive, allowing the public to participate by using a hand pump, or a pedal cycle to pump the water around the feature.  Thus the public have the opportunity not only to see recycling in progress, but also to take an active part in that recycling process. 

Through my research talking to various members of the public, I have been led to believe that many people are aware of the need for conservation and recycling and they have been supportive of my water feature idea. 

The overall result was that most people spoken to understood what my installation is about and that it would help to convey the message regarding recycling, reclamation, conservation and preservation. Not all people are convinced of the danger we ourselves have created by plundering our resources and endangering our environment.  It is particularly to those people that our efforts have to be addressed. In a way the installation has an ecological conscience.

Through experimenting with various mediums and textiles to decide on what materials would be suitable for the installation, I made various 3D models, which proved to be unsuitable for the installation.  The results can be seen on my blog.

For the Public Interactive Water Feature, I decided to use and incorporate boulders from the quarry to represent mining and excavation of the earth’s raw materials, for example, coal, gas, and various aggregates used for construction and road surfacing.  I also chose wooden logs to represent the destruction of rain forests and land clearance, metal items representing the extraction of oil, tin, copper, minerals, gems and plastic representing man-made items. The shopping trolley represents consumerism, as everything mankind uses or eats comes from within the earth in one form or another.  As a result, by-products of human productivity means ‘WASTE’  which gets returned to the earth via either domestic, industrial or natural landfill sites. A hand pump and a converted bicycle that was adapted to take a water pump were used.  These represent alternative energy and recycling.  The public have to interact with the installation by using either the hand pump or bicycle, thus generating the power to lift the water up and around the feature back to its source, the ‘pond’, thereby suggesting recycling.

Through my work on these features, that allow public participation, I hope to capture the interest and imagination of the general public in the topic of recycling and its effect upon the landscape.  Hopefully, they will be drawn to the feature because of the fact that it is interactive.  By personally becoming part of the water recycling process, individuals will, hopefully, begin to think more deeply about the importance of recycling as well as the effect they themselves are having upon the environment.   

My installation exists and becomes part of the landscape, as the natural materials used coninsist with the enviroment, and becomes one in itself. It only becomes noticable when viewed by the public close up. 

There is a noticeboard erected at the site, with information and pictures of the Water Feature Installation, explaining the relationship to the working quarry.

In conclusion, this work is my attempt to engage the public in a topic that is vital to us all.  This project is a very small step along the way towards the enlightenment of those not yet convinced of the dangers we all face if we don’t start to take the environmental needs of the Earth’s Natural Resources seriously.

The earth’s resources are not infinite and so it is of the utmost importance to conserve energy and resources as well as recycling whenever possible.  Added to this is, of course, the fact that the environment and eco systems must have the chance to recoup and develop if the planet is to survive at all.

There is a short documentary DVD about the working quarry site and its relationship with the installation. This is to be presented in a presentation portfolio along with a children’s cartoon colouring in booklet regarding the working site, recycling, reclamation and conservation and the way in which they interact with the Water Feature Installation itself.

The timeline sets out the stages whereby the project progressed and was completed. (See my Blog for details.)  The anticipated opening of the feature to the public will be on Friday 10^th July 2012, 12pm – 3pm; with raffle prizes of 25 portfolios’ and 6 x A3 sized framed images from the quarry site and the installation.  There will also be a buffet with hot and cold drinks.  The event will be opened by the lord Mayoress of Warwickshire, with members from the media, news reporters and local T.V. stations attending.

During my research I have looked at various websites such as ‘Sustrans’ and ‘Ixia’ to gather relevant information on the topic of land and waste reclamation in art, and from such books as ‘Contemporary Art: from studio to situation’, edited by Claire Doherty,

‘A Landscape for Modern Sculpture’ and ‘Earthworks and Beyond’ by John Beardsley,

‘Land Art’, edited by Allison Sultzman, ‘Fountains, Splash and Spectacle, Water and design from the ‘Renaissances to the Present’, edited by Marilyn Symmes, ‘The Furnished Landscape’, edited by Jane Heath and ‘Sculpture Parks in Europe’, edited Valerie Aaras & Ravi Risspa.

I also looked at Land/Earth Art, which emerged in America in the 1970’s, influencing such artists as Robert Smithson’s 1970 ‘Spiral Jetty,’ Great Salt Lake, Utah, who constructed the spiral out of earth, rock and algae. The water level influences how much of the work is visible at any given time. I like the way in which he incorporates the excavated earth and natural materials in his constructions, Nancy Holt’s 1974 ‘Sun Tunnels’, Great Salt Lake, Utah,  is an arrangement of four 18ft long and 9 feet in diameter concrete tubes, or tunnels, in an X formation with some distance between each one. They are aligned with the sun on the summer and winter solstices: the various sized drilled holes made some interesting shapes and shadows, casting stars made of the sunlight along the interior, which reawakens the viewer to the surrounding landscape and the cosmos. I particularly like the way Nancy Holt works, as she conveys an interest in land reclamation, recycling and conservation, Taking useless and abandoned areas of waste land and transforming them into usable public spaces, she combines her art work to include public interaction, taking into account the environmental habitats of the local wild-life.

These artists’ works inspired my project ‘Inside Out’, ‘Outside In’, for the Public Interactive Water Feature.