Window Installation at the Fringe Arts

Thank you Chantal and Thessa for letting me put all this stuff in your window at The Fringe Arts on Kloof Street in Cape Town.

It's a long post with lots of photos and my thinking behind it is at the very end.

Detail shots of the base of the window.  I have used Spekboom in the book plant holders.  You can buy a tray of 6 for R20 at Lawtons currently and they are good for sucking up carbon.

and my new favourite thing - especially the horns made from tree branches

 Some nice members of the general public I met today

So what is this all about?

We throw away an inordinate amount of stuff.  It lands up on our rubbish dumps, in landfills, the oceans and maybe the recycling pile.  It bothers me a lot.  The lack of awareness and apathy of the general public bothers me even more.  Not just for waste but for day to day life as well and the stuff going on around us.  Maybe turning this ‘rubbish’ into something intriguing and beautiful will spark your interest.  And maybe the thoughts and quotes will make you giggle or strike a deeper chord with you.

And where do I get the ‘materials’ from?

The Books

I purchase them from the recycling pile at Oasis and CAFDA Charity shops.  These books were all destined to become paper pulp but now they have another little life.  The books I see being pulped break my heart but I can’t rescue them all.  My personal collection is already overflowing so unfortunately I have to let the majority go.

It seems we’ve been rolling books and magazines since the 60’s.  The oldest photo I found was of a pencil and pen holder in an old ‘Good Housekeeping’ magazine made from a magazine chopped in half with the pages rolled in. 

There is something incredibly satisfying about folding a book page in on itself and then moving onto the next one.  The repetitive action is the closest I get to meditation – similar I suppose to a walking meditation.  Maybe it's the movement that calms the mind.

The plastic bits of Flotsam

I am beach comber.  I love to wander our coastlines collecting all sorts of flotsam.  As a child I collected shells but the sad reality is that there are not many shells anymore.  So instead I have turned to flotsam.  I love the way the plastic has been worn and grinded down by the sea and bleached by the sun – I find these pieces heartbreakingly beautiful.  Each piece is completely unique and the worst part is that there seems to be a never ending supply of it.