Salvage Art and Design

About

Salvage [n]: the art of saving imperilled property from loss.

Story

Ever since I was a kid I collected stuff – from the beach, from the bush, and from the dump. My childhood was spent living not far from a dump – an ideal place for the neighbourhood kids to play ‘war’ or ‘Cowboys and Indians’. Whilst that was fun I was as interested in what I could find in our local dump and much to my parents horror lots of it I brought home. I am attracted to the textures, the shapes and the idea that what I use has already had a life and been used by others albeit for very different purposes. I am more excited by finding a piece of ‘worked’ flotsam and jetsam than I am with finding ‘natural’ materials.

My first exhibition in 1981 as a founding member of the Taranaki Artists Cooperative [TACO] was assembled from found materials and so it has continued. The polite term for this is now ‘found art’ or ‘art from found materials’. “The term found art describes art created from the undisguised, but often modified, use of objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function.” Source: Wikipeadia

I prefer the term Salvage Art. Salvage [n]: the art of saving imperilled property from loss.

Since 1981 I have been part of numerous group exhibitions and have works in collections in New Zealand, The United Kingdom and The United States.

My recent work has had a more functional element to it and includes mirrors and vessels for containing . . . more junk!