WAST’ED
Preview Night
Thur 17th Oct 7-9pm
Payment in Kind(ness) applies: BringYourOwnGlass, use it as your drinking vessel and get £20 off any artwork for sale
WAST’ED
Exhibition
18th - 28th Oct
Tue & Thur-Sun 10am-6pm
Mon & Wed by appointment
Artist talks Sat 19th & Sun 20th Oct at 11am & 2pm
NEXT UP at Re’Store: Eco-artivist Francesca Busca presents a sustainable art-from-waste exhibition: WAST’ED!
Francesca has embarked on a journey into crafting art from discarded materials while fostering conversations about sustainability and the effects of our decisions on our planet. Every art piece she creates is a protest against our disposable lifestyle.
Francesca is the founder of Payment in Kind(ness)©, which accepts eco-friendly actions as payment for her artwork, and ArtforTrash©, whereby she uses the clients’ own waste to create artwork for residential, institutional, and corporate settings.
We invited Francesca to present her collection at Re’Store in the hope that we can inspire individuals and businesses to rethink their unwanted personal belongings. Instead of being discarded, waste can be used to create beautiful artworks that embody love, history, and personal stories; the artwork becomes a piece of history that can be passed down to future generations.
Francesca showcases her innovative approach to art-making using discarded materials. Through her creative process, Francesca not only transforms waste into captivating art pieces but also sparks critical conversations about sustainability and the impact of our consumption habits on the planet.
Each artwork serves as a powerful protest against our throwaway culture, challenging viewers to reconsider their relationship with waste and the environment. By reimagining what is often deemed worthless, Francesca’s work advocates for mindful living and a deeper appreciation for our resources. WAST’ED invites us all to reflect on the broader implications of our choices, inspiring a movement towards a more sustainable future.
Kal Di Paola, Re’Store
HOPE
2019 | 51x51cm | £1500 | Smalti, bark, marble, filati and fruit nets on wooden board/ fibreglass mesh.
Nature suffering, choked by human expansion. Yet, if we let it be, its resilience might be the key to salvation…
“I feel the urgent need to move from an anthropocentric society to one that is focused on the common good of the whole eco-system, where all creatures, both fauna and flora, are respected and treated equally, as the key to our survival”
As an Eco-artivist, ‘Rubbish artist’ and mosaicist, Francesca pioneers sustainable art by creating her artworks entirely out of waste (her 'trashure').
Torn between optimism and surrender, she is haunted by the idea of humankind’s imminent self-destruction. Yet she believes in a future of resourceful innovation through systemic re-thinking. Her artworks are drenched in hope: every tessera she creates is in itself a protest against our disposable lifestyle, providing a different perspective on waste. The more beautiful the artworks, the clearer the message.
Her Gesamtkunstwerk is her commitment to sustainability, encompassing every aspect of her life from veganism to renewables, second-hand clothes (…) to not flying.
Ex-City solicitor, Francesca graduated with distinction in Mosaic and Fine Arts at the London School of Mosaic in 2019, where she also lectured Fabrication from 2021-22. Internationally she has exhibited in over 100 venues, has been featured in over 100 articles and textbooks, and won over 2 dozen awards.
She is the founder of Payment in Kind(ness)© (accepting eco-friendly actions as payment towards her artwork) and of ArtforTrash© (creating artwork with the clients’ own waste).
Francesca runs pro bono art projects on eco-awareness and sustainability. To name a few, she has collaborated with Living Streets, Salon Sustainability, LIGCA, Fernando Montaño, a few primary and secondary schools and most recently with The Camden Clean Air Initiative on Earthfest 2024.
Following her year-long collaboration and residency with the Institute of Marine Sciences in Venice (CNR-ISMAR) Francesca is now on retainer with the Institute, set to collaborate with some prestigious art institutions over the next few years.
Metamorphosis (WIP)
"Possibility is sustained by one's intuition for invention - and for invention to flourish, one must be fiercely independent" (Hans Ulrich Obrist in an interview with James Lovelock, 'Ever Gaia', 2023).
Francesca Busca, an ex-City lawyer, changed careers in 2015, deciding to become an artist, a childhood ambition, always drawing, and in 2019 she graduated from the London School of Mosaic. But out of this newfound talent, she decided to put her energy, and her art, into basically "saving the planet." Busca became, in her own words, an 'Eco-Artivist,' or 'Rubbish Artist!' I prefer the former label.
Busca began creating her sculptures and installations entirely out of waste. She quickly became a master of this art form, a veritable "gesamtkunstwerk" that included her own and her family's lives as vegans.
I am reminded of the artist Hundertwasser, who reclaimed the soil for his artworks and built underground, and the seminal German artist and activist of the 20th century, Joseph Beuys (I interviewed both of them).
Coral Greef, 2024 (detail)
Busca's materials are predictable: plastic cutlery, bottle tops, fruit nets, medicine vials, and, yes, discarded bones! In a permanent installation at a school, she used 8,000 screw tops in a work entitled "Flow of Life." And in a work entitled "LIVe and let LIVe," her materials were 100% waste, utilizing thousands of crown caps and hundreds of corks, overlaid with organic paints. Other highlights include a tongue-incheek sculpture made out of "100% Crisps and Popcorn"!
But Busca's impressive body of work around the planet is both poignant and topically important, as climate change is on all our minds. "Everything I create is in itself a beacon of hope," she has stated. "My quest is to push the boundaries of both mosaics and fine art and make them accessible to everybody!"
Busca is soon to collaborate with the Institute of Marine Sciences in Venice for the upcoming Boat Show, a project I look forward to. And she is continually running 'Pro-Bono' projects on "eco-awareness." | truly salute her as a visionary artist so in tune and in touch with the huge problems we face as a planet in the future, and her art and message are that we can do something about it now!
Anthony Fawcett, June 2024
“The chocolate bar wrapper, the disposable coffee cup, the furniture that we replace because it looks a little tatty.
We live in an age where most of us are producing waste at a monumental level. Francesca Busca is not most of us and her commitment to live a sustainable life extends to her art where she repurposes hairdresser's foils, papers and magazines, cork, leftover paint, bottle caps and crisp and popcorn packers to create art that promotes sustainability. She will work with clients to create art from their own waste and will even accept eco-friendly actions in lieu of payment for her art. Creating the words 'love' and 'live' out of rubbish it's both a critique of how wasteful we can all be, but also a beacon of optimism as it's now well known that we're facing an ecological crisis and Francesca remains optimistic that we can find a way to address the climate crisis. Her message is clear - make art, not waste.”
Tabish Khan, May 2024
Francesca Busca’s masterpiece, Cinderella Tries the Shoe / Impostor Syndrome (2024), is a monumental work that fuses conceptual brilliance with an impeccable sense of craftsmanship, earning its rightful place as the winner of the prestigious Future of Art Global Masterpiece Award. This artwork, constructed entirely from 100% waste, specifically 1,310 medicine vials collected over the span of as many days, serves not only as a profound commentary on societal issues but also as a beacon of what art can achieve when it challenges boundaries and expectations.
The work's title, Cinderella Tries the Shoe / Impostor Syndrome, is not only evocative but incredibly layered. On one hand, it references the timeless fairy tale of Cinderella, a narrative about self-worth, identity, and transformation. On the other, it addresses a deeply modern psychological phenomenon—impostor syndrome—that plagues many individuals, especially those in high-achieving environments like the art world. In this regard, Busca is a genius in connecting the archetypal with the contemporary, creating a dialogue between fantasy and the harsh realities of our internal insecurities.
The use of discarded medical vials, materials that once held life-saving substances, reinterprets the notion of waste and gives it new purpose.
This is the hallmark of a visionary artist—one who can turn what is overlooked or discarded into a narrative of redemption and transformation. The fact that Busca has collected these vials over 1,310 days emphasizes a staggering dedication and patience, qualities which manifest in every facet of the work. The meticulous arrangement of these small, fragile containers into an intricate, almost crystalline structure speaks to her incredible attention to detail and mastery of materials.
At first glance, the artwork's texture is mesmerizing. The vials are arranged in such a way that they mimic the delicate lace-like forms of nature, perhaps evoking coral reefs or snowflakes, yet are imbued with an eerie sense of fragility. The way she has seamlessly integrated the concept of “impostors” into the piece—some vials are different, out of place, but still part of the greater whole—reflects the idea that even within a system where one might feel they do not belong, their presence is still significant. These elements challenge the viewer to question their own perceptions of identity and self-worth.
Busca’s work is a testament to her genius and a striking example of how art can be simultaneously beautiful and conceptually profound. Her unique approach to materiality, particularly in using found objects, aligns her with modern environmental art movements that aim to
reduce waste and question consumerism. However, it is her ability to transcend the medium, to make waste not just a statement on sustainability but also a metaphor for human experience, that sets her apart. By invoking themes of identity, self-doubt, and transformation, she captures the essence of contemporary human struggles in a way that resonates universally.
Winning the Future of Art Global Masterpiece Award places Busca in the echelon of artists who are pushing the boundaries of what art can represent. Her work will undoubtedly inspire future generations of artists and art lovers alike, illustrating the potential of art to effect both personal and societal change. Through her imaginative reuse of materials and deep conceptual thinking, Francesca Busca has proven herself not only to be an extraordinarily talented artist but also an important voice in the global conversation about the role of art in addressing our most pressing issues—both personal and planetary.
It is artists like Busca who remind us that the future of art lies not in convention but in the courage to disrupt, innovate, and ultimately, transform.
Future of Art Global Masterpiece Award Jury Board
and Marta Puig, Editor of Contemporary Art Curator Magazine, September 2024
Crocodile Reef
2024 | 45x45cm | £850
100% waste: roughly 180 plastic medicine vials.
Extremely unlikely is bound to become increasingly likely, as we are facing a new reality, shape-shifting at increasing speed. Like crocodiles in proximity of coral reefs, a reality which is becoming less and less rare common as a phenomenon of climate change.
Continuing the series on our marine eco-system, so closely linked to the rest of our planet, and so essential to our survival. Legacy of my remarkable residency at CNR-ISMAR in Venice earlier this year.
