Enough on Our Plates

Enough on our Plates – a fundraising exhibition about food waste.  

I was an artist in residence at Sheffield Food Works – a social enterprise ‘building systems for fair and sustainable food for everyone’. Food Works recovers unused food from businesses and producers. They ensure this food is put to good use, preserving the time and energy that has gone into producing it. 

“Food Works operate on the intersection of social justice and climate justice”

Whilst researching and developing visual communication responses to Sheffield Food Works, I learnt about the complexity and problems of food distribution and disposal infrastructures in the UK, also the attitudes and assumptions that individuals can make about ‘waste’ food. By salvaging hundreds of tonnes of food every year, Food Works are countering the negative and polluting effect of food production, delivery and disposal. 

"10% of global carbon emissions come from food waste, while only 4% comes from aviation"   

As a conclusion to the residency, I created an exhibition of experimental prints, drawings, photographs and information in order to attract more funding to Food Works and entice more local customers to their venues.   

“If you look at Food Works as an alternative food bank, that misses out a lot of what we're trying to do. Similarly, from an environmental angle, there can be less awareness of the importance of inclusivity and making sure that everyone, irrespective of background, has a voice in what a sustainable and fair food system could look like”.

Limited edition stencil screenprints created using ink from food waste

Limited edition screenprints of food crates on teatowels

Large canvas artwork created using reclaimed food

Exhibition Launch at Sharrow Community Forum

Plastic 101, 2022

A family of four collected all of their plastic waste for one week. This drawing captures the 101 various types of single-use packaging disposed of; each destined for recycling or incineration. This drawing seeks to remember and make visible these items that are usually removed from our home without much attention. This artwork was a personal response to a Greenpeace initiative inviting UK residents to collect and share data generated from collecting plastic waste for 7 days in May 2022 – ‘The Big Plastic Count’.

Seaworthy Vessels, 2022

This single monoprint has been made to capture the ‘ghosts’ of some pieces of plastic litter, found on a short walk beside the River Don in Sheffield. The lifecycle of plastic utilises finite resources and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Sheffield is land-locked, but plastic litter joins waterways, and eventually reaches the sea. This print aims to evoke a feeling of being underwater, viewing an abundance of plastic waste, which has actually been prevented from becoming marine debris. 

This piece was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2022. Coordinated by Royal Academician Alison Wilding, exhibiting works made by everyone from emerging to internationally renowned artists, all exploring this year’s timely theme of ‘Climate’. Whether as a crisis or opportunity, or simply our everyday experience, it is an all-embracing subject.

Swimming in Plastic, 2022

 

200 pieces of plastic litter found beside the River Don have been reproduced using monoprinting for a site specific installation at Sheffield Adventure Film Festival, 2022. This installation is designed to give the illusion of looking through the windows as if underwater, viewing the abundance of floating plastic waste. Single use plastics, part of a disposable culture of convenience, easily end up as litter due to their lightweight nature, and durable qualities. Even though Sheffield is land-locked, plastic litter can join waterways, and eventually reach the sea. These prints capture the objects in their lost state; now reclaimed they will be recycled. However, In both their production and disposal, they will contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Waste reduction, through re-use and minimisation, needs to be better promoted and facilitated. ShaFF inspired this project through its screening of “If You Give a Beach a Bottle” directed by Max Romey. His film highlights that “153, 846 tonnes of new marine debris is added to the ocean every week”.

Rubbish Prints, 2021

'Boxed-in' Found letterforms from the paper recycling bin

'Loo-nar Cycle' - the average person uses 8 toilet rolls a month. Printed with toilet roll card.

'Tetra Tetra' - using tetra pak surface for collograph printing

'Tetra Pak Monument' - observational print

'Pie in the Sky' - 3 colour risograph, representing 3 different disposable materials

'Pie Cases' - silver embossed prints of disposable aluminium

Blowing Our Own Trumpets!

Ecological Footprint Project

Extracting from just one month’s worth of glass, metal, card and plastic recycling generated in the home, I placed the items on the paving outside my house, and used them as stencils to capture their trace. A record of the resources used, and despite their disposal, me and my family are reminded of our ‘ecological footprint’ as we repeatedly walk across the imagery of the resources spent. An 'ecological footprint' is defined as "the impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources". [I used discarded spray paint donated by the local school].