Thursday, April 14, 2011

step by step

Here's a brief description of the STC working procedure:


I begin by going for a walk – it’s more of an amble, my pace is slow so that I can scan the terrain for fragments of hard plastic.

I wander, along main roads through suburban streets down lane ways, across playgrounds, train lines, car parks and sporting grounds ...

I often take my dog for company, although lately I invited a friend or two to join me.

I carry with me a prepared pack of hand tools – hand drill, scribe, a woodenwedge with a hook attached, G Clamp, a wooden block with screws drilled into the top, silk thread, threading needles, pearlescent plastic beads.


As a wander I collect fragments of hard plastic

Run over chopped up, swept into crevices and corners as they break down fragments tend to evade all mechanical methods of rubbish removal.

The only way to remove them is to pick them up by hand.




I pause at intervals along the way.

Usually at bus stops, park benches or other forms of public architecture. I carry tools to clamp on or wedge in to adapt these spaces as a temporary workstation.





I sort, drill and thread the found plastic with pearlescent beads. I repeat this process until I have gathered and threaded a necklace length of plastic fragments. The time it takes and the distance I travel is dependent on the amount of material I find.




I repeat the procedure Walking, collecting, drilling and threading. Over time I create a string of beaded fragments.


Upon my return I add it onto an intricately bejeweled looping matrix that can be read or interacted with as a wearable object or as cartographic trace of my engagement with matter, time and site.

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