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Grannie & Gramps on Toilet Signs Submission Zoe on Bog Standard Gallery Maureen Grayson on Bog Standard Gallery @ Ar… Archibald Gluck on Bog Standard Gallery @ Ar… Neil on Early for work.
After another successful exhibition in Manchester (I won an award for originality 
), it was time to say goodbye to my little yellow caravan.
As heartbreaking as it was to let her go, storage and logistics had proved to be quite a nightmare. Especially since being in London where finding a little green field to store her was an impossible task!
I had previously been storing the caravan on a farm in between exhibitions, but the thought about doing this indefinately worried me about the condition she would get into. I would rather see her go to a nice home now, than keep her a little while longer but then have to send her to a scrap heap at some point down the line!
So, after lots of thought, deliberation and changing my mind most days, i decided that now it’s the start of the summer, i would like her to go to a loving home with lots of children so that they can be getting pleasure and use out of it. (I was still undecided with 3 minutes to go on the ebay auction so got my boyfriend to bid…satisfied that he was the highest bidder and that i got to keep the caravan, i left the room…only to come back to my computer and see that he had been outbid in the last 3 minutes!) Gutted!
So off she goes to meet her new and adoring family in Yorkshire…
The photograph below shows the brown biodegradable sheet i have been working with to make the bark of my biodegradable tree for Stanelco PLC.
Thermo-forming sections of this brown sheet over the clay mould (shown above) transfers the texture imprinted on the mould to the biodegradable plastic sheet. I made the mould by using the clay to adopt the texture of a real tree bark. Once i have formed enough sections of bark i will melt all the small sections of together and will eventually have what will be the trunk of the tree.
As well as the bark texture the trunk will take on the shape of familiar plastic shapes in certain parts of the trunk as seen in the photographs below.
After cutting all the bark sections out i saved all the left over bits to use to make the branches - REUSING
To follow, the branch making…
My little yellow caravan appears once again after having been in hibernation for the winter.
Panic set in on her arrival at the exhibition after realising the keys seemed to have gone for a wander and there was no means of entry. Weirdly my mum had found a mouldy key in our house the day before and surely enough it opened the door instantly!
After this exhibition the caravan will hopefully be sold. It will be quite a sad moment for me, as after painting it over a period of a year with 24 litres of yellow paint and 40 000 polka dots, and i am very much attached to it!
However, every time i look down at my clothes i always see a little blob of yellow paint that just somehow managed to get onto everything i own so the caravan won’t seem too far away!
After receiving 48 000 visitors at various locations across Manchester, Bog Standard Gallery is now at it’s first London exhibition
Apthorp Gallery
Barnet Open
Thursday 8th May 2008 - Sunday 15th June 2008 12.00PM- 4.00PM
artsdepot’s answer to the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition.
This annual event, now in its fourth year, will offer an opportunity for talented visual artists to exhibit their work. Ranging from ceramics to photography, installation art to oil painting, The Barnet Open will showcase a broad range of styles and mediums in a contemporary gallery setting. The exhibition is the product of an open submissions process with local residents, artists and community groups having the opportunity to put their work forward for selection. The result will no doubt be a vibrant group show by compelling artists.
Last week Bog Standard Gallery arrived to London
In preparation for it’s next exhibition this is your last chance to submit photographs for possible inclusion in the gallery.
Since Bog Standard Gallery’s last exhibition at Urbis in Manchester my travels and the collection have become quite extensive and the toilet signs inside will be even more varied and interesting than before.
I still continue to receive great toilet sign images from all over the world and if anyone has any that they still have not sent that they would like to be included in the gallery now is the time to send them.
Thank you!
Photos below show trials for tree trunk and branches.
I would like to apologise to the friend i referred to in the post below regarding his wastage of plastic bottles over his daily water consumption.
News just in is that he is well aware, and full of guilt about this wastage and therefore now chooses to consume his daily water allowance by filling a plastic cup with water from a water cooler.
800% less plastic bottles - it sounds impressive!
BUT still too much wasted plastic! Further questioning led him to admit to using a different cup each time he has a drink! Based on the fact that these cups hold significantly less water than a bottle, and telling me he drinks about 7 cups a day, i am not convinced he is saving that much plastic!
I hope this post guilts him into using one cup per day - that would be a good start!
Oh, and he did tell me this whilst he was paying for a packet of pitta bread which he then put inside 2 plastic bags to carry it across the road from the shop to his flat!
My friend, i think you just dug yourself one huge hole!
This time last year my world was yellow. But now it’s green, biodegradable, and tree like!
Working with biodegradable plastics since November, it has without a doubt affected the way i feel about plastic. Not only do i always ask not to have a plastic bag in a shop, but it completely riles me to see people taking bags for just one item! I would say that the way people go about consuming so much plastic with no regard for the environment has become my biggest pet hate.
Earlier this evening, a friend of mine was telling me about how he drinks at least two bottles of water a day and then just bins them - that’s almost 800 bottles a year!!! Whatever happened to using a glass and a tap?? Although I must admit that the water here in London, in my opinion is vial! Being used to the Cheshire water i am not used to seeing half a beach at the bottom of my mug of tea!
Anyway, I haven’t spoken much about the pieces i am working on for Stanelco until now, perhaps because i have just had a big mass of biodegradable thoughts and experiments whirling around in my mind. But now i am focused on two very different installations.
Trying to overcome issues of storing previous art works such as my portaloo and caravan, you would think this would have some impact on the scale to which i have decided to work with on this project - but they are the biggest yet
It’s an exciting time for me in the process of creation as all the plans are well in place, the experimentation has been exhausted and the final stage of making has begun. In other words, this stage for me is the, ‘dont stop ’til it’s finished part!’. Hence it’s midnight on a Wednesday evening, the working day is over and i am sitting in my bed surrounded by some newly made biodegradable branches, diagrams of how my trunk will slot together and writing about trees!
Photos to follow!
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste tubes
Toiletry bottles
Straws
Bubble wrap
Earphones
Collanders
Rulers
Yogurt pots
Bottle tops
CDs
Tapes
Ketchup bottles
Hangers
Phones
Plugs
Milk bottles
Buckets
Watering Cans
Kitchen Spatulas etc
Cutlery
Spectacles
Drinks bottles
Credit Cards
Computer peripherals
Chargers
Games consoles
Pens
Razors
Pritt Stick tubes
Pencil sharpeners
Watch straps
Set squares
Telephone sockets
Plug Sockets
Light switches
Sandwich boxes
Calculators
Missed anything?? Let me know please!
Don’t you just want to eat it?? I think it reminds me of sweets
Lots of things are new for 2008, mainly because i am now living in London
I seem to spend a lot of my days driving around roundabouts not quite knowing which turning to come off at and usually still don’t know until i have tried every exit but the one i should have taken!
I shouldn’t complain too much about driving though, as i have just signed up to cycle from Tower Bridge in London to the Eiffel Tower in Paris! I will cycling these 200 miles over a period of 3 days, over the back holiday weekend in August, raising funds for the Breast Cancer Campaign. I am sure you will agree that this is an extremely worthwhile cause, and if you wold like to sponsor me you can do so at www.justgiving.com/melaniewarner
Happy New Year!
My work for Stanelco is well underway now
After spending quite a bit of time getting to know the material and it’s capabilities i am now working towards three very different installations.
Getting to this point was quite difficult because the material is usually fed through industrial machinery, popping out several hundred pieces of the same product all with a purpose or function. But how could this be used to make art?? (And can ‘art’ and ‘function’ be used in the same sentence??)
What i wanted to know was what the capabilities of the material were if i had a big lump of it sitting in front me me in my studio with an array of tools! Well, I am stronger than i look but this stuff is tough! So for this reason i went down the route of trying to design something big made out of lots of smaller components. I spent time thinking about the material being made from a natural renewable source, and the way it biodegrades right back to nature. I liked the idea of showing this full cycle in my work, as well as demonstrating the biodegradable potential of the material, yet at the same time showing that despite all this that it is completely functional and wouldn’t biodegrade if you didn’t want it to!
Meanwhile, since i started this work i have had a huge bag of biodegradable pellets taking up space at my Mum’s house and she keeps asking me why it’s still there and why it’s not biodegraded out of her way yet!
I don’t want to say too much now about what i am making until i have got a little further with it but soon i will upload photographs of my progress.
It sounds a bit drastic to accuse an art gallery of kidnapping a toilet but that’s exactly what happened!
Not only did they kidnap my precious portaloo but they then held her hostage for about a week not granting me permission to go in and check she was ok 
Put yourself in my shoes - imagine you had been privileged enough to go to Portaloo Land, and pick out your own very special looking portaloo from all the ones they had lined up in need of some TLC and a home, then you spent 100 hours inside the thing, cleaning it and doing it up, putting up with the fact that you smelt like poo and bleach for about two weeks, six months later having people still refuse to shake your hand on the basis they know where it’s been, travelling half way around the world photographing toilet signs, getting laughed at by lots of people when photographing the mens’ door and a man walks out in the middle of the picture being taken, only to go and check your precious portaloo was ok where it was being safely stored only to find that it was gone and hear that an anonymous white van had been and removed it without a trace earlier in the day!!!
Enough of the rant, she was found safe and sound…
…if only the Tate had the same mentality!
So basically what i am trying to say is - Bog Standard Gallery is now on exhibition in Urbis for those that want to pay a visit!
It’s on the 3rd floor and forms part of the ‘Catapult‘ exhibition - entrance is free - you don’t need to spend a penny to go in! 
For those that don’t live near Urbis you can also pay Bog Standard Gallery a visit on Second Life!
I am writing this post from Weeze Airport after having been in Germany for the past couple of days with work.
I spent yesterday at an absolutely massive plastics exhibition/trade fair in Dusseldorf swatting up on all the different types of plastics, as well as all the different types of machinery used to form them. I think the scale of this trade fair, and the distances in which people had travelled both to visit and exhibit demonstrate just how big a part plastics play in our lives.
Starting work on my commission from Stanelco, i really can’t help but notice plastics everywhere i go and think about all the oil that is wasted in making them when there are so many alternative materials which could be used.
So, having four hours to pass at this little tiny airport and all different plastics whirling around in my head i have decided to see exactly how much plastic i can spot in this place:
(Typically with me i started at the toilet, although i cannot include what was in the mens !):
- 8 plastic toilet seats
- 8 plastic toilet brushes and 8 plastic toilet brush holders
- 8 plastic coat pegs
- 8 plastic toilet roll dispensers
- 9 plastic door handles and locks
- approx. (although judging by the amount of time i have to waste it’s probably pretty accurate) 48 metres of plastic sealant strips around the cubicle walls and door
- 14 plastic bin bags
- 10 plastic legs on cubicles
- 1 plastic air freshener holder
- 4 plastic door-stops
- 2 plastic light switches
- 2 laminated plastic cleaning rotas
- 2 plastic soap bottles
- 3 plastic laminated no smoking signs
- 77 plastic seat pads
- 87 plastic condiment sachets
- 30 plastic laminated menus
- 36 plastic Pringles lids
- 2 plastic tills
- 2 plastic drinks pumps
- 48 plastic straws
- plastic fire hose
- 3 plastic vending machine fronts
- 8 plastic sandwich containers
- 17 plastic-wrapped baguettes
- 14 plastic-wrapped muffins
- 16 plastic-wrapped bakery items
- 32 plastic advert banners hanging from ceiling
- 2 plastic laminated ’staff only’ signs
- 4 plastic sit on rides for kids
- 2 plastic ‘A’ boards
- 4 plastic computers
- 2 plastic illuminated advert boxes
- 16 plastic leaflet holders
- 18 plastic- wrapped items in vending machine
- 2 vending machines of plastic bottles
- 38 plastic seat pads
- 17 plastic signs for lifts/departures etc
Trash Luxe is a collection of work by young designers who specialise in finding beauty in humble materials or salvaging otherwise unwanted goods, which they use to create dynamic, luxurious pieces.
This exhibition was extremely interesting not only in terms of the work itself, but the way in which it was chosen to be exhibited and especially the choice of venue.
Held at Liberty’s among their existing range of luxury items, this gave the work a real sense of luxury too. This was interesting because if the range had of been shown in a second hand shop i would have seen it in a completely different light. With environmentally friendly products often costing more to produce there is definitely a place for them in the luxury market as well as the extremely contrasting more hippie world!
As well as the choice of location for the exhibition what also fascinated me was the reaction of people about recycling and recycled products and i think this is something i would like to analyse further.
After spending a year painting my caravan and it’s contents yellow, i have a very exciting new commission!
Seeing as i usually ‘live’ my projects this could mean quite a lifestyle change for me as it involves going green and working with a material that is not harmful to the environment!
Stanelco is a company that produce bioplastics which i will be using to create my next installation.
Bioplastics can replace oil-based plastics and because they are derived from corn and potato starches, as well as being used for life-long plastic products they can biodegrade right back to nature. As it is a very new material it is extremely exciting as it’s capabilities are not entirely known so will involve a lot of experimenting and fun!
Taking on this work has increased my awareness of lots of environmental issues, particularly focusing my attention on all the wasted plastics we come across daily - so much so that i have a new found feeling of guilt when i put plastic in the bin these days!
There are lots of artists that explore environmental issues and this will be something interesting to look at as i get a feel for this new project.
