Sustainability Day 12- Landfill v’s Art

So, we often think about using recycled materials for our art / craft experiences… but what if we took this to the next level and explored Recycle Art!

As part of our creative arts experiences we need to be exposing children to various art works and media such as paintings, collage, clay work, sculpture, carvings and engravings and we often focus on the work of Picasso or Van Gogh.

But what about urban art or recycle art? This is a great way to discuss recycling…  rather than rubbish ending up in landfill or polluting our waterways… artists use this to design and create…. here are some examples;

Rodney McCoubrey uses various items such as cords, materials to create re-interpretations of children’s illustrations.  Imagine the possibilities here…. children could draw their own picture and then re-create this using rubbish such as material off-cuts, buttons, cords, ribbons, string and so on.

Jane Perkins uses items she finds in junk yards to create portraits  of famous people.. imagine children being able to have a photo taken of them and then cover this / create their own portrait using these items… I am sure we / families have spare beads, buttons, cords, ribbons, lids at home we could spare.

Leo Sewell spent his childhood gathering items from dumps and creating with them… imagine asking families to bring in items that would usually go into the trash and children could design and create together as a group project!

Win Delvoye creates with old tyres.. and while these are amazing they may be a little challenging to achieve in the service… however it is something to appreciate.. maybe get you thinking about what else could be done with tyres??

Yuken Teruya reminds everyone that the common household toilet or paper roll comes from trees and this delicate and thoughtful art is definitely one I would love to explore with children… imagine looking at our everyday items and talking about where they originally came from and designing art with that concept in mind!

Tim Noble & Sue Webster’s art… is it a pile of rubbish or 2 people sitting together? … just love the use of rubbish (and the message it sends ) but I really love the use of shadow and light to create a relaxed scene. I wonder what the possibilities there are here?

So using recycled materials is more than just adding to our art or collage trolley… it is an opportunity to talk to children about where this goes if we do not re-use, where it originally came from and of course support children’s appreciation of all types of art and artistic approaches… as well as their own!