Artcycling - Newsletter 7 (English)

NEWSLETTER

Welcome to ARTCYCLING! This is a very special issue of our quarterly newsletter: you are going to read the view of our artcyclers first hand. With this article you will get an idea about the impact of this initiative in the daily life of the participants.

We hope you have a wonderful summer, full of creativity and recycled ideas to make our world a little bit better.

ÂĄEnjoy your reading!

*The cover photo is the first of a series of Artcycling photos that show the collection of materials, linking to the project, and to Annemette Eriksen’s recycling work.

NEWSLETTER 7 - JUNE 2017

THE VIEW OF OUR ARTISTS Manuel, from the canvas to the fabric Manuel has painted during all his life. We can say that he was born with some paintings in his hands. Oil paint, acrylic, watercolor, marker, waxes, stick paintings … any technique serves up, with no exceptions. Sometimes, he even mixes them. For this reason, he was a natural candidate for the Artcycling project from the day center of Fundación Intras, in Toro.

University student, baccalaureate in French, art expert… Manuel hoards a wide culture that sometimes is blurred or fragmented like spare parts of a puzzle due to his mental illness. “I am enjoying participating in the project. I spend a good time in the atelier. I like drawing and painting”, states this 42 years old man from Zamora, whose creations are wellknown because of their style and stroke- distant cousins of Modiglianiand have been named within the center as “manuelinos”.

Travelled and outgoing man, Manuel feels glad to participate in a project that “is going to be seen in Europe”. “I feel really excited about the fact that my paintings are going to travel to other countries, that they are going to be known out of Zamora by other people”, he adds.

In the Artcycling project, a big variety of the creations of Manuel have been transferred from the paintings to the textile, this means, that they have been embroidered on fabrics, thanks to the collaboration of the workers from the textiles factory. This has pleasantly surprised him: “I would have never thought that I would see my draws on fabric, with the embroideries made by Piedad and Carmen. They are beautiful and I love the colors… It is a pity that I do not know how to sew“. anuel is naturally sociable, but he used to work always alone. His participation in the project has served him to surround himself with other people in a working environment, such as the partners from the atelier. “I do not like that other people look at me while I am drawing, I worry that they could criticize me or tell me that they do not like it. For this reason, I always prefer to show the paintings finished… However, I have realized in the atelier that my partners enjoy looking at me while I draw, because they want to know how I do it”

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NEWSLETTER 7 - JUNE 2017

The next step has been to convince our artiste to change the traditional supports- paper, card or canvas- for fabrics of different texture and thickness.

After the initial doubts, Manuel has get excited about the idea and he is currently observing the first results, that afterwards, they will be transformed even more in other ateliers. “Painting over fabric is different, the touch is not the same, but I do not think it is difficult. The important thing is to get the knack .I am happy”

Magic with recycled textile and a sewing machine!: I used the word “magic” because we can create amazing things with Retextile strings and a sewing machine! I started to make a small spiral and kept on going round and round with a special sewing technique and made a large round shaped carpet. Also, I put together small round shaped textile forms and create colorful wallart. From these flat round shapes it is possible to make jewelry (necklaces, earrings) or belts too!

When I had no fresh ideas to work with flat forms, I started to experiment with the 3D version of these interesting shapes. The form of the object depends on the tightness of the thread you use and the way of sewing the textile together. With forming 3D objects I figured out it is possible to create caps, bags, holders or even sculptures or vases.

When working with this technique, I had new and new ideas what to create: fresh objects came to my mind. My fantasy started to fly to the endless universe and my desire became fulfilled in the joy of creation!

Ildikó

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NEWSLETTER 7 - JUNE 2017

Brave new world: This could be the title of the well-known Huxley book, but in my case it will be about something else. It’s not about our uniformed, over-techniqued environment, it’s the opposite - it means the livable, fresh possibilities, the new functions, differently from the original ones.

In the ArtCycling project I became a part of a miracle; it made me open my eyes on a new world, just like in the poem of Attila József: “I’m looking on it since hundreds of years but now I finally see it”.

This is what happened to me too. This world is beautiful: decorative, colorful and full of ideas. It’s new, because it’s possible to make jewelry out of bike tubes, books out of recycled paper and leather, necklaces out of small colorful wool. I made a padlock-haversack out of Retextil threads and felt with looping on thread technique. I created my favorite object combining the stiffness of the Retextil thread and the warm mood of the wool.

Rita

Mette and Randi Since we started working on the Artcycling process, we have had the pleasure of working with about 20 different artists, all keen on working more with recycling, upcycling and the use of natural materials. Some have moved on, some stick around, but all of them give the team fruitful experience in our work to promote the value of art and sustainability.

When working with recycling and upcycling materials, the artists seek to prolong the lifespan of products, save resources and spare the environment of toxic impact. With the Artcycling project, we strive to contribute to a green transition by an increased practical experience with re-using what would otherwise be discarded as waste, and by combining this with the use of natural/non-processed materials.

Cleaning up the Storage – Mette Geisler Dragelykke “I have a lot of materials in my workshop, everything from half-finished paintings, posters, old books and magazines, to paint, colours, frames for printing and so on. The past year or so, I have been trying to process those materials. Partly because I feel they have some value, but also just to keep updating and tidying up my artistic life. I use the old materials to make new artworks. The theme I am working on is how to communicate inner value and energy to the spectator.” Mette explains, and continues

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NEWSLETTER 7 - JUNE 2017

“In a way, it’s a way to try to reach and wake up the human being, which is what I believe we need to do to achieve the change that we are striving for. Big words, I know, but they fit well within the ambitions of the Artcycling project.” Later this summer, we will be running a workshop with all the artcyclers based on Mette’s work. This way, we can all contribute to the production of artwork with recycling or upcycling of materials, and simultaneously develop material for the upcoming exhibition that we will run in the fall of 2017.

The Rhetorical Layers of a Walnut While Mette focuses on re-using materials that would otherwise have been discarded and thus minimizing the negative impact of her artwork on nature, other artists focus on the use of materials that are as close to their “natural” state as possible. Using e.g. the dye that can be made from walnuts.

This angle is brought in by Randi Kjær, who is part of the Artcycling collaboration group and combines rhetorics and walnuts in some of her work.

A concept that she has been working with e.g. in a permaculture-oriented school in Denmark last fall. A concept also that caught our attention as a beautiful way to raise sensitivity, save resources, and work into a tradition of sustainable art that draws on the qualities already present in nature, rather than going through an industrial process to come up with the artistic expression.

Walnut painted with colour made from the outer shell of the walnut

“In the school workshop, we worked with walnut dye pens that we made ourselves from the green outer shells of the walnuts. When they fall off, they darken and colour everything that touches them with a strong brown taint. But the walnut is also a rhetorical journey: the outer shell is like pathos and reminds us of when we evoke emotions in others or our-

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NEWSLETTER 7 - JUNE 2017

selves. Emotions that taint and rub off on others, like the dye. The hard shell of the nut is like logos, calling for hard facts. Ethos, on the other hand, is the last fine hymen that protects the fruit, but also our personalities and credibility.”

Randi’s fine rhetorical sense combined with the textural experience of working with walnuts is some of the depth and lightness that we need in a project like Artcycling. Sustainability easily becomes based only on the hard facts, the outer science, or the inner emotions, despair and wrath or hope and sorrow. To move beyond that, we have to bridge and connect and move between different practices, emotions, and languages. We look forward to sharing Randi’s methods with the whole group in one of the workshops leading to our exhibition this fall.

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The next issue‌ Disseminating the Artcycling project.

We will come back in September!

For further information, please contact us via e-mail: proyectos2@intras.es You can find us on Facebook as well: https://www.facebook.com/Artcycling