#Recycle.#'Drowning in Cardboard'. ART 180~Personal Project

Collecting my used cardboard food/product packaging for 7 days was easy enough...storing it all until I used it was another matter! I was not surprised to see how much I had attained in a short few days that would normally be put into my over flowing recycle bin. Using a small amount of cardboard previously in my printmaking/collage work this was an obvious next step to experiment with, but on a larger scale. A material readily available and to be otherwise discarded/recycled.

Deciding to cut up the boxes along the folds of the packaging and sorting into groups of colour was a laboured task, hours of fun and sore fingers had but it kept me busy whilst I processed what to do with it all. The colourful mountains were easier to manage and store also.

250cm x 75cm. Cardboard packaging with sticky back plastic.

I went on to make a large collage, mural by arranging, overlapping and gluing the cutup packaging together (above). The colours felt appealing and natural to have them placed in profile. Each section of colour has its own individuality with the use of the white shapes in areas but the coordination of colour allow it to flow together. I have went on to cover the piece in sticky back plastic. This gives it a lovely shiny surface and allows each individual piece of card to stand out. The collage is now waterproof...a great painting mat?

Research artist: Tony Cragg.

My interest in Cragg's large scale installations came after reading, 'When Trash Becomes Art-Trash Rubbish Mongo' book. Craggs' used everything, including reclaimed, used items and found objects.

Cragg's typical work consists of many individual objects, arranged to form a larger image. Prompting his work to be described as a 'relationship of the part to the whole'.

The plastic objects which make up 'New Stones, Newton's Tones' were collected by Cragg in 1978. The objects laid out, evenly in format and colour sequence to form a sculptural floor piece.

Tony Cragg. 'New Stones, Newton's Tones' 1978

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Edit: I have since used my photographs taken of the packaging (above) to create experimental prints.

A few examples (below), the photographs have been cut and edited using Photoshop. The testing of this process will help to further explore the different aspects of media. The use of Photoshop isn't something I use regularly in my practice. Therefore it has been an experimental process in the project, likewise, useful in exploring drawing techniques towards module DWG151.

Overall the experimentation has been very useful. My confidence in using digital media has grown through this process!