I've been working on recycling workshops and I've finely got somewhere. Using a plastic milk container can make one vine with flowers on it.
I've also been working on the Butterfly Park proposal too. I’m going to put forward the hanging trees idea I had last year, I think it would be a perfect project for an empty shop. If you haven’t previously read about it this was my initial intention but it needs tweaking:
‘I intend to produce an installation of hanging book page trees depicting the shapes of some of our native trees.
When installed I would invite the public to take a tree home with them but first they’d need to replace it with their own cut tree which they’d be able to do there and then with the assistance of ready stapled, folded and strung book pages and a template. This could either represent a native tree sapling (what should be planted every time a tree is felled) or it could be a fir tree (what often is planted as they grow fast) I think both send a message, it comes down to whether to show an idealistic scenario or reality.’
Now that there’s a possible opportunity to produce this project I need make decisions.
This is what I’ve got so far:
The four weeks could be spent making the trees to be hung for the exhibition and on the p.v people could take one of my trees home as a gift when exchanged for a new tree that they cut on the night. (not sure if it should be the fir trees though as it would look stupid if we didn’t get enough people there to complete the installation) Then I could do a childrens workshop, maybe a book based on wildlife from the Butterfly Park, maybe just a butterfly book as I’ve got an idea for that, needs lots of developing though. I could offer an adult workshop making my tree books, then I could put all the time left to write the proposal into developing the childrens workshop.
There’s an alternative idea for the whole residency time scale. I could do two drop in workshops where the public make the trees to hang, they could choose from a mixture of native tree templates to make their tree from and it could be hung up for the rest of the residency. This might be good to attract people in, as it could be seen from outside and they might be more likely to come to the p.v as a participant of the project and to collect their own trees. I’d spend the residency making the replacement trees, then I wouldn’t be depending on people turning up to the p.v either. The downside is that people wouldn’t be taking home an artwork gift from me, instead they’d be taking home their own work but they might like that more because it’s their own creation.
My own installation would only be seen finished after the p.v though and this would only be a day or two before my residency finished. I could ask for the p.v to be half way through the residency but I wouldn’t be giving myself long to make the work as well as fit in the workshops and manage stuff outside the residency. The first installation could really be a community artwork though, they could even hang their installation themselves.
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