This Plot is Not for Sale
20 custom colour swatched green emulsion on marine plywood letters upon timber wooden frame with sandbag supports
L 380cm x H168cm (frame) plus H40cm (letters)
For The Old Waterworks August Open Studios 2022, I installed a sculpture reading This Plot is Not for Sale in the car park made up of 20 custom colour swatched greens from the Ivy in the TOW car park. The greens were put in tonal order making a gradient
This phrase is embedded in both protest placards from the plotland history to current day cultural groups and communities; who care, work and tend to local land even under precarious contexts of past, present or future land threats. There are many important projects and people, where the land itself or the land surrounding their building is intrinsic to the work they do. This was evident on The Open Studios and the role the TOW garden plays for both humans and nature who rely on the space, from the bee boxes, to studio holders Anna Lukala and Philippa Stewart who grow an array of dye plants, Emma Edmondson who makes handmade bricks in the car park, to An English Garden benches by Gabriella Hirst and Warren Harper, where many conversations are had. We are all custodians of this land.
Care Package
The Old Waterworks has recently produced a care package as part of a recent artist develpment project, which has been created by three studio artists: Shaun C Badham, Charlotte Hamilton and Philippa Stewart. Each care package is sent to support members of the community who are not able to attend our events in person. We believe that access to art is an important part of all our lives and we want to make sure people dont miss out because of inaccessible environments, caring responsibilities or vulnerable health conditions.
For my care package I enclosed a handmade 20-piece colour chart composing of 19 custom greens which have been colour matched from The Old Waterworks, car park ivy. These greens were initially produced for a text-based sculpture reading This Plot is Not for Sale, presented tonally from light to dark. Each green was utilised for an individual letter and comes with its own unique code. You will be one of 20 people who will know these codes, and if you ever wanted to use any of these greens domestically or artistically you can take the code to a local Dulux and can get the green re-produced for yourself. Happy painting and making.