Living Things

Concordia University Centre for Creative Reuse

CUCCRxVAV Residency 2019

A how-to guide

Chloe Lalonde

Concordia University’s Centre for Creative Reuse, or CUCCR, lovingly pronounced ‘sucker’ is a multi-stakeholder project and we need everyone’s help! Join us and become a member. Our membership is free, and open to anyone and everyone. You can sign up in person and online on our website www.cuccr.ca.

Want to get more involved? Volunteer in the depot, become a sustainability ambassador to help with reclaim-a-thon and set up a donation bin in your area, advocate for us within your department or area of the university, or contribute financially.

We at CUCCR are dedicated to diverting materials from Concordia’s waste-stream and offering them to the general community free of cost. Currently located in the zero-level basement of the Hall Building, CUCCR has and does handle wood, glass, metal, fibers, office supplies, plastics, paper, tools and equipment, and arts & crafts supplies.

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A new sense of care is given to the physical as Living Things reconsiders the relationship between the artist and their chosen materials.

Living Things is the culmination of a three month long artist residency created in collaboration between the VAV Gallery and Concordia's Center for Creative Reuse (CUCCR).

Eight undergraduate Fine Arts students were selected to create works that consider life-after -art, giving old materials a new raison d’être, with objects primarily sourced from Concordia University's waste-stream.

Care Package / Dexter Barker-Glenn Among Things / Xavier Beldor From my hands to yours / Erin Berry petroleum/jellies / Caite Clark Let me hold on to you / Maya Jain Matter Delivery Project / Maude Lauziere Dumas A Practice in Grief / Sadie Mallon Remnants and Excavations from the Undying City / 3

Dexte r Barker-Glenn I am a Toronto born visual artist working sculpture, painting and experimental video work. Through my art I attempt to understand my own identity, and accept it as both a singular state and as a combination of

How to reuse Styrofoam

many states. I often incorporate organizational structures such as cabinets of curiosity, three ring binders and manila folders into my work. I identify with these objects as

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Use as insulation

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Make your own perlite potting soil

they are both a single object and an assemblage of many objects. I hope to show the beauty in these structures while drawing attention to their power to shape our feel-

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ings towards the objects they contain.

Through playful interventions with shipping materials, the Care Package series puts a spot-

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light on these often discarded, yet powerful objects. The sculptures are made from used plywood and Styrofoam packaging; materials

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that don't only protect the objects they transport, but add to their value by insinuating that they are important enough to be protected.

Similarly the work and care in my manipulation of these materials changes their value by imply-

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ing that they are worthy of being cared for.

These objects have gone through two journeys.

They have literally moved from place A to place B, but also have journeyed from functioning as a case or frame to functionally protecting the ‘thing’, to becoming ‘the thing’ itself .

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Use as alternative to ice (cooler use only!)

Use as stuffing for plush toys and beanbag chairs Use big blocks of Styrofoam (and cover with fabric) to make stools or your very own ottoman Dissolve in acetone to make your own plastic (illustrated on next page)

desires

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Xavier Beldor

Xavier BĂŠlanger-Dorval has a multidisciplinary

This kinetic work forms an ecosystem of recycled

corpus comprising kinetic works, paintings,

objects reassembled in a disorganized way into a

sculptures and installations. Favoring the use of

recycled wood furniture. The mass made of these

recycled objects, his work focuses on the themes

objects move at random intervals, simulating the

of the environment and consumption. In his

effect of a breath. These movements remove ob-

works, he organizes the formal possibilities of

jects from their waste condition by giving them a

organic and non-organic objects in order to re-

second life, this time organic. This project ad-

visit their meaning.

dresses the themes of the environment and consumption to stimulate reflection on how we interact and deal with the objects around us. It also invites the viewer to reconsider the distinction be-

You will need‌

tween things, objects and waste.

How to create an eco system in a jar

A glass container, bottle, or jar

pebbles

Plants, moss Compost / food waste or chopsticks Tweezers

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You may also add your own unique, kitchy doodads and thingamajigs to add to your world

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Erin Berry Erin Berry is completing the final

clay and glazed with found, do-

months of her undergraduate de-

nated and recycled materials.

gree at Concordia University where

This process truly gives the end

she is Majoring in Ceramics. She is

results a value far beyond its in-

the president of the Concordia Ce-

tended function as an object or

ramics Students Association and a

Vessel. During the final exhibition

research assistant to artist, Linda

of the residency I will invite eve-

Swanson. Her fibers and ceramic

ryone to enter their names into a

works have shown throughout Can-

draw for the cups, names will

ada and the United States, most

then be chosen and the cups will

recently Vermont and Montreal,

be given away at the end of the

with her first solo show taking place

exhibition period. Participants

at Xchanges Gallery in Victoria, BC in

will be able to use and reuse the

2017. Erin will be taking part in the

vessel they choose instead of a

Short-term Artist Residency at

paper or plastic. At a time when

Guldagergaard International Ce-

the global climate is noticeably

ramic Research Center in Denmark

changing, as a result of our inabil-

this May.

ity to slow our culture of over

For this project my aim is to bring an awareness of the value and environmental cost of the one-use items many of us consume on a daily basis. Earlier this fall I had the opportunity to go to St. Hilaire and dig in a creek bed for local clay. This was my first time experiencing the full process of working with clay from its source, through the making process, to the final glaze firing. During this

consumption, this project is meant as a small push towards mindfulness of the impact each of us has on the environment. In a society where it is easier to order on Amazon or get a cheap cup at Dollarama, the act of making, taking the time to craft an object and give it away is a protest against the tide of global consumerism.

residency I made clay cups, using the throwing techniques taught to me by my grandmother. The cups are made from the locally sources

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How to find and use local clay 1. Clay is often found in low lying areas, such as creek beds with slow moving water. Clay can be found wet or dry and in the areas around Montreal it will most likely be a grey green colour.

2. Once you have collected the clay you need to remove the large organic matter such as stones, sticks and leaves from the clay.

3. To do this, add water to the clay to make a slurry, pour the clay through a kitchen sieve.

4. Spread wet clay out onto a canvas covered surface and let dry until it is soft but does not stick to your hands 5. Now the clay is ready to by made into anything your heart desires!

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Caite Clark Caite Clark is a puppeteer and projection artist in her final year of Concordia's Theatre and Development Specialization. Concordia theatre includes Dwellings (puppeteer), The Fredy Stories (Assistant Director), The Tempest (Assistant Director), and Crossings (puppeteer). Projection work includes Autobiography of Red (TNC Theatre McGill) and Lovesong for Insomniacs (Student Performing Arts Festival).

Project Description: If I could use two words to describe my practice as a puppeteer, it would be sustainability and curiosity. I am interested in making things out of reused and recycled material, as well as the multiple usages for a single material or puppet. For me, puppeteering is a natural curiosity: how can we think through something? How can we access that childlike part of our brain that is willing to believe an inanimate object is alive? As this exhibition is a collaborative effort, I seek to invite people to animate the puppets I have created, breathe life into discarded material, and engage with sustainability in a tactile way.

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Maya Jain I am a multidisciplinary artist, designer and evolving person. Though my passions are scattered across disciplines, I am consistently guided by emotion and a resonance with aesthetics and philosophy. The body of work that I have created as part of the CUCCRxVAV resi-

How to make basic patterns from existing clothing

dency is a personal exploration that uncovers the remarkable potential of used clothing.

Let me hold on to you is the result of a twomonth exploration involving the deconstruction of old clothing and the reconstruction of new garments using collage and unexpected repurposing. Unwanted clothing was sourced principally from friends and family and certain pieces were supplemented from CUCCR. What stemmed from a personal practice of reuse and customization of clothing, has revealed a potential for connecting people through memory and materiality, a potential for disrupting accelerated and excessive waste trajectories as well as delocalized exploitative labour, a potential for the resistance against imposed identity-performance expectations, and a potential for sustainability beyond environmentalism. Not only do these garments postpone disposal, but they prolong and rework a relationship to emotionally significant belongings. This suggests an undoing of the binary between physical and psychic, probing the fluidity and complexity of identity, memories, relations.

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Maude Lauziere Living and working in Montreal, Maude Lauziere Dumas, visual artist, focuses on materiality through a multidisciplinary practice. Wanting to explore the links between raw materials and their industrial transformation, she first explores jewellery as her way of expression. Her practice evolves slowly towards an artistic approach questioning the object in relation with the human body and the fabricated. She is currently pursuing her train-

How to make and use basic rivet joints

ing in sculpture at Concordia University.

Delivery Matter Project is an installation offering a reflection on the ontology of matter. This principle questioning the notion of living leads to seeing "things" as animated subjects. Shaking our anthropocentric conceptions of the world, the work attempts to deconstruct the idea that matter is uniform and inert. The assemblages presented visits the notions of agency and their capacity of self-organization in the space. Material phenomena are studied by the artistic gesture to have a better understanding of the interdependence of human and nonhuman matters in relation to their environment. This artist residency allows me to develop my understanding on the existing interrelationships between materials and society. Serving as a roundabout, CUCCR’s physical location gives power to the substances and glamorize their presence. The created art work thus supports this desire to see the material and human identities as a whole, open to different processes of social, cultural and political transformation.

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Sadie Mallon Sadie uses her interdisciplinary practise to dissect our relations to birth, sex and death. An eco-feminist approach is emShredded paper

Used paper scraps

ployed as Sadie makes bold connections between our treatment of human experience and the natural world. Tackling the unappealing nature of relations with care, Sadie puts forth a request to change the way we relate to one another and the earth.

Wood pieces

Completed frame

Screen (thin mesh or old window screen)

For centuries, artists have strived to create archival works that will outlive them. Derived from the belief that our fear of death and loss are a common motivator behind

1 part paper to 1 part water

creating archival or single use works, A Practice in Grief seeks to face these fears by emphasizing death’s crucial role in producing new life. A Practice in Grief takes the cycle of life and applies it conceptually and

spiring artists to be more environmentally conscious in their practices.

A Practice in Grief consists of a series of graphite drawings on handmade papers of the artists body amidst scenes of birth, life and death as witnessed in nature. Discarded papers were salvaged, soaked, blended with natural colour agents (turmeric/dirt) and laced with indigenous to Montreal plant seeds. At the end of the piece’s life in the

How to make paper

literally to material forms, in hopes of in-

VAV Gallery, the artist will bury this fully compostable piece, from which the seeds embedded within the paper, will grow.

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Shake to separate fibers, until pulp reaches desired consistency

Thick pulp

Thin pulp

2-3 bottles of pulp

Enough water to fully submerge screen

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Armando Rivas I am Venezuelan, and this is my first year here at Concordia in the fine arts

How to…

program. Traditionally I have always painted, and something I have done for years is make computer models as reference material for my paintings. This is what has made this last year so exciting, as I have been able to bring these digital fantasy worlds to life. For some time I worked in an architecture firm and a carpentry, both of which were profoundly instructive experiences. Since I have been exploring the field of construction but through an artistic lens. I

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Colour in if desired

2. Cut out the stencil along the red line 3. Optional: trace onto rigid surface, like cardboard or cardstock 4. Use exacto knife to cut along horizontal blue lines

am deeply interested in the power of spaces and the influence they can exert on individuals or a collective. From always I have explored miniatures and using them as a means of visualizing grand spaces. What has been particular about the last couple months has been that I’ve considered material for the first

5. Fold bottom tabs inwards and numbers 1-4 6. Glue tabs to bottom “floor” piece 7.

time. Before, most of my work was paint on canvas. Seeing a reduced budget, I have sought for alternatives, and that led me to work more and more with CUCCR.

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