Sunday 27 September 2009

A Wealth of Waste

It was a beautiful day here in Newcastle, despite the gale force winds. After breakfast we headed to the beach where the lifeguards were doing their exercises.

As we bobbed up and down on the sand filling our bags with plastic, we joked that those lifesavers were for the humans and we were for the ocean; for the birds, the fish, the seaweed.

We spent the majority of the day picking up junk, singing, laughing, having competitions to see who could pick up the most lollipop sticks in the shortest amount of time (five in a single minute).

We looked high.

We looked low.

We looked like happy holidaymakers when we took this photo of ourselves.

Then we took the day's wealth of waste back to the exercise yard at the Lock-Up. Underneath our collection are two holes in the concrete, where two tall poles once stood. Legend has it that the dangerous prisoners were tethered on a short chain to one, and the slightly less so on a slightly longer chain, to the other. Society used to dump their social waste here, so it's a fitting site for our project's exhibition.

After we dumped our waste, some visitors came in to see what we'd been doing. One of them said that it looked like someone was camping there. Patrick made up this sign to leave nearby in case anybody tried to remove our goods, as the cleaners did at this little show a while ago.

5 comments:

  1. The composition of, and colour in, the lifesaver photograph makes it truly outstanding. Nice one, AaF. xxx

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  2. So pleased to see you guys are having such a great time, Family as Artist. Can't wait to see what develops over the time you are there.xx

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  3. P+M+Z.

    Here I go again! The blogsite looks great even the occassional lifeguard in budgie smugglers. V.cold here in Daylesford. Been out battling the Oxalis weed in my garden.

    Looking @ your collection I immediately thought of games to play with the rubbish.

    Straws: Pick-Up-Sticks
    Drink Bottles: 10 Pin Bowling
    (will require tennis ball)
    Caps: Chalk in a game of checkers on the concrete floor
    Plastic Tape: BlindMans Bluff or Pin The Rubbish On The Donkey (drawn on wall or use Patrick..)

    Also weaving into little mats or wrist bands or wallets or stubbie holders..

    Make a dress, bag or budgie smugglers....

    Just a thought...

    xPete

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  4. deep chuckles here mr O, thanks for the list of games; like we're on a P&O cruiser/waste breaker and the floating islands of petro-chem waste are our ultimate destination. p

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  5. Excuse me but is that me in that family shot? When and how did that happen?

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