THE COMMON
Zine
CATHE
RINE RO
GERS |
@CUT_
OUTCO
LLAGE
UPCYCLING EDITI N ISSUE II
UPCYCLING In a society so saturated in fast fashion, consumer goods + plastic packaging on every piece of fruit and veg on our shelves, it has become almost impossible to take care of our planet. The result? Well, you already know. (Cue Greta Thunberg) This month's zine tackles the issue of environmentalism through art. Specifically, the art of upcycling. Our hope is that this little zine will provide you with the creative inspiration you need to become a little more crafty with your scraps + encourage you to take small steps to combat our throwaway culture.
our house is on
fire
T H E C O M M O N CUT OUT COLLAGE
@cut_outcollage
artist in residence I grew up in Liverpool until I was 10, so returning now aged 29 feels like a long-awaited coming home. Its familiar yet unfamiliar territory, one which I now must navigate with a new purpose and curiosity. It’s bizarre to explore somewhere, and carve out your place in it, when you’ve known it so well as a child and later as a visitor. This dual process of re-learning an environment and defining who I am as a creative has been challenging. Coming from many busy years living in London, and last year in Sydney, I have finally given myself the time to discover what drives me, what excites me, what I hope to achieve and why I’m wired this way. Upon arrival in Liverpool, finding a studio before finding a job seemed like a wild decision, but it has framed the first steps of this journey and has given a sense of value to my creativity. I am considering my creative capacity as a strength and not as an added extra or a nice to have. It finally has a seat at the table. I am passionate about making space for people to be creative, giving that to myself has been transformative so far, and I want very much to use my skills to provide that for others. I trained as an Art Therapist to allow me to do this more readily, which I also do in the Merseyside region, but I am positive that the creating of accessible art spaces is something I can do as an artist as well.
More of Catherine's artwork + upcycled furniture can be found on our website, thecommonzine.com
wex baby
@wexbaby
Shop Small & Ethical Wex Baby Bags Now Fully Recyclable wexbaby.co.uk
Lucy
Archer
On Recycling When navigating a fresh body of work, my making process often becomes an act of “recycling” by re purposing past imagery and concepts. This chewing over of ideas and visual hopes offers a gentle dip into new territory. It feels positive, personal and like a warm conversation with myself. Recycling, repetition, rhythm and understanding. Ultimately, by reinventing my work I maintain a thread of continuity and intimacy in my images that I want to communicate, share and continue.
Artist's Statement: B. 1994 Leicester, Lucy Archer graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2016 and is now based in Liverpool at The Royal Standard. Lucy aims to construct landscapes, interiors and imagined spaces through drawing. She often reacts to specific locations or found images to form her altered environments. Motifs from these scenes are repeated and developed throughout her work, sliding over, sitting on and blending into surfaces to play with the depth of an image. Despite employing a lexicon of lyrical and seductive marks, Lucy’s pieces ultimately seek resolution through geometry and formal composition.
www.lucyarcher.co.uk @lucyarcherfineart infolucyarcher@gmail.com
raelle marshal
Resin sculptures made up of plastic collected from Crosby beach.
This piece explores the idea of the lengths we will go to as human beings to stray from our true selves
the lengths of the face
Rat_zz
rosina evans
'recycle, restore, recreate' Artist - Sophie Hardisty of Sophie's Emporium, rejects mass production and uses found materials to recreate the beautiful landscapes and vistas she visits. Reject mass production and embrace individuality
After completing a BA Hons in Textile Design in Nottingham, specializing in embroidered sculptural textiles and fashion, I proceeded with my post graduate teaching qualification in Liverpool, in 1996 -- resulting in twenty plus years of teaching in schools and colleges across the North West of England alongside my work as a practising artist. My educational work covers Art, Textiles, Fashion and Photography to a range of ages up to examination and undergraduate level. I very much enjoy the teaching aspects coupled with the opportunity to expand creatively. This is something which runs simultaneously with my own practice. I have exhibited regularly in various galleries and in November 2017, I launched my online gallery and online store. This has provided me with a virtual platform to exhibit my work, develop my brand Sophie’s Emporium; a lifestyle concept store with the philosophy of rejecting mass production and embracing individuality which also indulges my other passion of vintage collectibles, found objects and antiques. You can view this and more of my work at www.sophiesemporium.shop. This is a continually evolving project and shortly I hope to launch my virtual online gallery, a unique opportunity to view and curate my Art, where I develop further quarterly exhibitions showcasing new works and works in progress later this year, as a view to further exposure and marketing of my work. My creative work has covered a plethora of genres but I have a passion for mixed media painting and mark making techniques, collage, montage and textiles. There is always a strong sense of narrative which flows throughout my work exploring the concept of memory and gathering nostalgic snippets of an experience or moment in time. My latest work explores surface quality, the panorama vista and the landscape. Capturing the environment, atmosphere and our interaction between the present and a memory. Layers of collage, found objects and paint are applied and removed revealing the fine layers of colour and highly textural elements. This is then enhanced through energetic mark making and line and combining a variety of brush marks and on occasions stitch. I want these to simply dance around the canvas and evoke the atmosphere of that place and space. These paintings and works on paper are from a series of work ‘smoke and slate’ -- A collection of paintings in a range of subtle hues based on my visits to the beautiful island of Jersey and rocky and pebble landscapes. A series which incorporates a soft subtle colour palette designed to ease into a range of interior settings. Thus providing peaceful, calm and tranquil compositions.
The paintings reflect my location visits gathering found materials and imagery to incorporate within my work. I like to think the found collected materials will create a sense of mindfulness in the home. Explore and wander across the beautiful honey coloured beaches, and panoramic vistas, enhanced with soft greys and plaster pinks and indulge in the more abstract linear compositions which overlay each surface.
textural details from the landscape painting above
CERI HEDDERWICK TURNER
@cerihtdesign
I am a designer focusing on small scale furniture and spatial design. my work is driven by tactility and modernity and how this informs design and our multiple experiences of the world and the spaces we inhabit. I work with a range of materials, such as wood, metal, paint, stone and clay, aiming to create moments of harmony and juxtaposition between their individual qualities. I believe this creates a richness of experience with my pieces. I studied for a degree in architecture and worked for a short time in an architecture practice. This background sparked my interest in how we document and share our experiences of the world and I aim to translate this learning into empathetic design. I aim to regularly diversify my working methods and materials to continue growth and development in my design and craft skills and techniques. My work is available at: www.cerihtdesign.co.uk
ARVINDA GRAY
https://arvindag.wixsite.com/folio
NIAMH CONWAY @lilkitschshop
Success > Wealth I’m not buying anything this year. For far too long I’ve been subconsciously equating a persons material wealth as having a successful life. Believing that if a person has luxury handbags or designer labels that they are more successful, happy, accomplished than me. And it used to be a goal of mine to own something one day that had a McQueen or Prada label. As a child I would lust for things I saw in Vogue magazine, ripping out the pages and pasting them on my walls, I didn’t have pictures of famous boybands, I had John Galliano adverts. And now, looking back, which was more damaging to my twelve year old self? The pictures of semi-wholesome boys with spiked hair or a picture of Vivienne Westwood bending glamorously over fake vomit? We didn’t grow up poor by any standards, but certainly anything designer’ was completely out of reach. It felt like I was left out of a club that was too good for me, I could lust all I wanted over Van Cleef & Arples, but I would never be able to buy it. And they knew it. When I was thirteen I went to London for the first time and I was so excited to go around Liberties and Harrods and see all the designer clothes in person, but when I got there, I felt so out of place I was embarrassed. I was scared to even breathe in there! They’d know I was a fraud! But they want you to feel embarrassed to be there. They want you to feel marginalised, offended, made fun of, looked down upon. Because they have you then. When you realise you cant have it, it makes you want it more and you’ll try to ‘prove’ it to them that you are worthy of it. They’re scamming you out of your hard earned money just to prove you could. But no amount of designer bags will make you feel better about being poor. And it ain’t just the designer brands that con you for things you don’t need, fast fashion companies have been destroying wallets (and the world) for decades now. Personally, I’ve struggled with feeling addicted to shopping for years now. Feeling bored? ASOS app.
Feeling sad? ASOS app. Feeling lonely? ASOS app? Sad that you’re poor? ASOS have a sale on! And over the years, I’ve thrown away my money to these giants of industry for cheap clothes and cheap thrills. Sis, I’m done. You can no longer try to convince me that a new pair of shoes or a slashed sale is going make my life any better. I feel almost immune to advertising now, because I can see right through it. They don’t care that I might be depressed, in debt, suffering addiction or loss. They only care to make themselves money and they will risk your wellbeing and the wellbeing of the planet in order to get it.
No amount of Instagram ‘baddies’ will make me want a new dress, I cannot be swayed by your over-edited false advertising anymore. It’s dull, its over done and I’m over it. So this year, I’m not buying a single new material product. Not a one. No new makeup, hair dye, shoes, accessories, jackets, dresses, bags, NOTHING! I don’t need anything new. Regardless what MissGuided.com thinks, I don’t need a new top that just about covers my nipples thanks very much. Or any top for that matter, and the ones that I do have, I’m going to work on decluttering what I don’t use and recycling or donating them. Just to note, I don’t hate fashion, I just hate what its become. I have a BA and an MA in fashion and for many years wanted to dedicate my life to the industry as a designer. But its grown ugly and twisted in the name of money. I still love fashion for the art and protest, I just want to find smarter ways to love it and sustain it, better for our purses better for our planet. So please, if you are reading this, consider the alternative. Stop filling your emptiness with debt and instead find something that will actually serve you and fulfil your life with happiness and joy that lasts a lot longer than any garment ever will in your wardrobe. Peace x
Χαρά Κωστοπούλου Hara Kostopoulou
Recycle The recycling of history as an accumulation of Money and Power https://sites.google.com/site/harakostopoulou79/home To make our work easier, in the consideration of history, we can divide it in smaller periods of time. We can observe that many of them are similar to each other. Their succession creates smaller or bigger recycles, that define their time of evolution of history. If we focus in the specific characteristics of important time points of repetition, we observe the coordinated action of persons, groups of people and nations that move alone or in cooperation, driven by an enormous thirst for power, money and wealth. This process is repeated continually, so that increasingly few people can be involved in their possession and distribution. In this effort there are not moral or other barriers. Everything that can help in that direction is considered fair. Pioneers of this effort are the powerfull and the rulers of earth. They have not scruples and the means they use are the oppression of people and armed domination.
An example that shows the size of the problem world wide is the following commercial statistics: Every year are moving world wide six million of women and children for sexual exploit and ten million of men as a cheap workforce. An example of modern war, is the Iraq war, where the mania of the Americans for money, was collided with the passion of native dictators for power, bearing destruction in the civil population. Remarkable is the “professional” jobs of the Americans ministers in constructive companies of “reconstruction” of the killed nations. These photographs of recycling products, show the use of person as a consumable capital good. The triumph of the commerce in our time and the raising of profit as the highest good for the world society are self-evident. Human (and not only human) societies are used as markets. People-members of them are treated as consumers or aa product themselves, for the achievement of the greatest profit. In the second case which is the most tragic, the person – raw – material, can be "absorbed – recycled" -- in the course of a production process which turns human lives in money profit.
Upcycling: To reuse discarded objects or material in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original. Mary Olive Laying bare and bodiless on a surgery table a face waits. Absent eyes and tongueless mouth are open and soft. Nearby in Operating Room twenty Katie Stubblefield prepares for her face transplant. Having lost her face in a tragic suicide attempt three years previous, Katie is now the youngest person so far to receive this experimental surgery at twenty one. After reading about Katie’s story through a National Geographic article last week, I have since been almost obsessively occupied with the relationship between our spiritual sense of self and our physical being. Are transplants a kind of “human upcycling”? If so, what does this reveal about our “self-ness”? Can we upcycle a person, fix them, make them a product of higher value and quality? With cosmetic surgery increasing in popularity through social media influences and external pressures on individuals, what does it really mean to permanently change our bodies? Ultimately, this asks the question: is humanity tangible? The surgery Katie received was undoubtedly an incredible feat for modern day science and medical care. Transplant surgery can offer life saving care, of which we are all aware, and I hold a deep sense of admiration and respect for the medical professionals carrying out these surgeries. According to NHS Organ Donations, 3117 people have received a life-saving transplant since April 2019, and the current transplant waiting list stands at a staggering 6254. As advances in medical technology continue to grow, these surgeries are increasing in success and development, enabling doctors to carry out ground breaking procedures, as seen in Katie’s case. Putting this to one side, however, I wish to explore the ways in which this challenges our humanity, if it challenges it at all. I have always recognised myself as my face. It is my identifier, my communicator, my link between my self and my world. With my face being so integral with my sense of self, I began wondering what it would mean to change faces. Katie remains Katie despite wearing a new face. In fact, perhaps this face has in fact became
Katies, changing over lives as it changed owners. So where, if not in her face or in her body, does Katie really exists? Philosopher Allan Watts explains in his lecture “Getting back to your self” that within Western culture, people associate our inner self with their head, as if it resides somewhere “between the ears and behind the eyes”. In Eastern culture, he goes on the explain, this sense of self is usually associated with the centre of the body, residing somewhere near the stomach or heart. This is not a new observation, with people often affiliating their physical organs with their spiritual sense of self. For example, a heart being the place of love. And so, if our hearts love and our faces carry our identity, what happens when we give these parts of ourselves to someone else? Katie did not change identity to that of her face donor, and her inner self still resides somewhere between her ears or somewhere in her stomach, depending which view you prefer to take. So what does it mean that she now wears another woman’s face as her own? On a more diluted level, we see this happening within the world of cosmetic surgery, or even within the beauty industry. We, as a society, are obsessed with upcycling ourselves. I have been upcycling myself for years. Staining my skin and slathering expensive face paint over my face every morning. Sometimes I straighten and chop my curls. I pluck the unity out of my eyebrows and slide razors over my shins. Making my body a product of higher quality, and ultimately, value. This is perhaps a fairly negative take, and I do hold many personal uncertainties with how much the beauty industry has positively impacted not only my life, but the lives of those around me. For the sake of this piece, however, I shall save these thoughts for a later time. I am more occupied, for the time being, with how connected we really are to our outer being. Do these changes we make to ourselves, change us not only externally but internally as well? Perhaps, as we embark on this new technologically advanced way of living, we must begin to question what exactly it means to be human. Stories, such as Katie’s, cannot simply be taken at face value. Of course, this is a tale of extra-ordinary medical progression and skill. But it is also a tale of our humanity. It breaks down the preconceived ideas we have held about identity for many years. Perhaps, our ideas about who we are must be rethought. Are we as easily defined as we may think? Is there a connection between the physical sense of self, and the spiritual? Humanity may be more malleable than we realise. We, as people may be much more fluid than we thought. Our modern way world is growing at an alarming rate. And as we grow scientifically and medically, we may begin to question all ways in which we live. The structures and boundaries in which we lead our lives are constantly wobbling and slipping away into a blurred grey area of existence. With genders bending, sexualities shifting and the world becoming in general a much smaller place, we must continue to question and challenge ourselves, not only logically but spiritually. We are truly remarkable creatures, us human beings. We rarely make much sense, even to ourselves, wherever our selves may be.
@TSOTArts /thestateofthearts www.thestateofthearts.co.uk
Rage is not enough Maja Lorkowska At, what I consider to be the fairly young age of, 26, I am already raged out. I often feel as though I can’t produce any more frustration, anger or impatience with the stupidity, disrespect and sheer ignorance with which the country (the world!) is run. I can’t take the global warming deniers, the silent screamers on Twitter, the stomach-churning BBC headlines and the hatred-soaked Instagram comments. I feel that despite being the constantly angry generation, I don’t have much more rage left, because wherever you look, there is always a reason for your blood to boil. The climate crisis is one of my main triggers. The disregard for our planet as a whole, and more locally - our streets paired with the ‘convenient’ ridiculous amounts of vegetable packaging, used to enrage me on a very regular basis. Now, although I still feel frustrated, I realise that the only thing that we can do is take small, individual action. Rage is exhausting, while doing can give you a sense of achievement and hope. As much as I hate inspirational quotes, you literally have to set an example and act in the way that you want other people to act. There is a time and a place for conversation, for protest, for loud words. After that comes the action. If it does not follow lofty words, then we have failed. And if those that we need to convince to act, aren’t listening, we need to keep going, loudly or quietly, each of us doing our own little bit. You can join Extinction Rebellion and write long Facebook posts about how ignoring the problem will lead to our children having nowhere to live, and yes – perhaps you’ll cause someone to Google the climate catastrophe predictions. But if you pick up that plastic bottle outside your house and put it in in the recycling bin, maybe a neighbour will actually see you. They’ll look at you surprised, maybe tell their family and have a giggle at that weirdo picking up rubbish on the street. Maybe after that they’ll put their plastic bottles in the correct bin too, maybe not. It’s worth a shot though. I promise you that sooner or later it will be your actions, rather than complaints, that will get people to act. As I write this in January 2020, we can all picture the tonnes of post-Christmas wrapping paper, plastic toy packaging, card envelopes and Amazon cardboard boxes. Probably the same amount of food waste. It’s on our minds, it’s a painful awareness, one that gnaws at your side and every now and then paralyses you during the early hours of the morning as you lie in the dark, thinking about the purpose and future of our earthly existence. I’m not going educate you on how to turn every aspect of your life into a fight to be eco-friendly, because it’s difficult, expensive and practically impossible. I’m not going to talk about recycling, because you either already know how to do it, or you can do research yourself.
Just make sure that as well as sharing shocking images of birds wrapped in plastic on social media, you also try to take your own cooked lunch to work in a reusable a Tupperware box rather than buying the fancy new vegan meal from Tesco in a singleuse, hard plastic container. Buy reusable cups and bottles as gifts. Calmly pull people with you in the right direction, instead of pushing them out of the way, as you’re on your way to ‘doing the right thing’. Of course, be prepared to talk about it too. Arm yourself with information and have it ready for the next time someone is curious. If they ask why you don’t eat meat, explain it calmly. If you see them putting their orange juice bottle in the office bin rather than the designated recycling one and ask them to remember next time. Lets’ be honest - I am absolutely guilty of passive-aggressively taking a milk bottle out from the wrong bin in front of the person who put it there and ostentatiously washing it out before throwing it in the right bin, feeling like I’m The Good Person. That’s not how it works. I know that ignorance is infuriating – but while sometimes it comes from not caring, more often than not, it comes from not knowing. You, - mhmm, you! - can fix it, at least a little bit. It can take just one person to cause a larger change, because most people know when the right thing needs to be done and will eventually follow. I know, I know - we’re running out of time. I know that if you’re a climate-crisis denier you wouldn’t even have got through the first paragraph of this text. I know there are so many bigger issues to worry about, like our taste for convenience and the need policy change. But while we’re fighting that, keep doing the little things, because if nothing else, you’ll feel a lot less powerless.
SEPAR8TOR 'I began to collect colourful plastic caps that were being thrown away to make mosaic art. It is up to the viewer to discern the image or connect the dots (pun intended). We are what we see!
KELLY IRVINE
@_century.foxx
SAVING THE ENVIRONMENT WITH DIGITAL DESIGN
Get involved in future editions, join our events, and come to our open meetings! More info at thecommonzine.com & on social @thecommonzine
CONTRIBUTORS Arvinda Gray Ceri Hedderwick Turner Darcie Chazen Stead + Bob Walters Hara Kostopoulou Kelly Irvine Lucy Archer Maja Lorkowsa Mary Olive Niamh Conway Raelle Marshall Rosina Evans Serpar8tor Sophie Hardisty
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Catherine RogersÂ
EDITORS Camila Montiel McCann Rachel Poxon