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The inspiration for this project is credited to Zoe Brand and her Personal Space Project, described on her website as an online gallery documenting a private gallery that exists in the real world. Online 24 hours or in real life by appointment. Located in Canberra, Australia in the bedroom of jeweller Zoe Brand.
It was in an exhibition of the Personal Space Project that I first saw the work of Roseanne Bartley, or more accurately, the project started by Roseanne Bartley. The project is called Seeding The Cloud: A Walking Work in Process and according to Roseanne’s blog it’s a roving environmental jewellery project devised to activate a creative response to the burgeoning issue of waste plastic within the environment.
I decided to respond to Roseanne's invitation by sharing my experience of the process of walking, collecting and 'seeding' (threading necklace components) while travelling in Iran.
My hotel was only a few blocks away from Imam Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Esfahan, so I chose the walk to the square as my collecting area. The streets of Esfahan are surprisingly free of rubbish! This could be due to a number of reasons but it meant that I had to be more conspicuous than I already was. I am not averse to picking up rubbish for projects (see CHOKER) but doing it when you’re already getting strange looks for being the only westerner in a 2-mile radius is a different story. Trying to justify your strange behaviour by silently mouthing ‘it’s for an art project’ to non-English speakers only gets you so far.
Surveying my spoils, I realised that most of what I had picked up was a by-product of the fast food industry: plastic spoons, bottle tops, straws and small take-away containers. I have always hated litter but being in a country that couldn’t be more foreign I was surprised to find that I was happy to work with something familiar. I could relate to the objects without a language barrier.
When I figured I had enough material to get started I had to find ‘seeding’ supplies. I had watched Roseanne’s threading demonstration video so I was looking for silk cord and beads to ‘seed’ my waste plastics. I set off for the bazaar with my lack of Farsi and exchanged a few communicative hand gestures with the shop owner. In the end I found some glass beads and the closest thing to silk cord: synthetic silver thread.
The next challenge was to start threading. Since I was travelling with a very limited set of hand tools, a drill not being among them, I had to improvise a little. I could puncture the very thin plastics with a thick needle but had to work around the tougher bits of plastic instead of through them. I would not recommend using synthetic cord; it doesn’t make the necklace hang very naturally. Then again, it quite accurately reflects the feeling being in a country where you don’t speak the language and can’t read any signs.
Photographing the necklace was the last step before displaying it in my bedroom. Fashion is a rather sensitive area in Iran where the state has imposed modesty garments for women. This was one of the biggest challenges for me as an individual that finds a lot of expression through fashion. I hadn’t seen anyone wear a necklace in public, so I made sure to pose for my photo away from the main street. Although foreigners are not expected to adhere to the strict dress code, when in Rome…
The inspiration for this project is credited to Zoe Brand and her Personal Space Project, described on her website as an online gallery documenting a private gallery that exists in the real world. Online 24 hours or in real life by appointment. Located in Canberra, Australia in the bedroom of jeweller Zoe Brand.
It was in an exhibition of the Personal Space Project that I first saw the work of Roseanne Bartley, or more accurately, the project started by Roseanne Bartley. The project is called Seeding The Cloud: A Walking Work in Process and according to Roseanne’s blog it’s a roving environmental jewellery project devised to activate a creative response to the burgeoning issue of waste plastic within the environment.
I decided to respond to Roseanne's invitation by sharing my experience of the process of walking, collecting and 'seeding' (threading necklace components) while travelling in Iran.
My hotel was only a few blocks away from Imam Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Esfahan, so I chose the walk to the square as my collecting area. The streets of Esfahan are surprisingly free of rubbish! This could be due to a number of reasons but it meant that I had to be more conspicuous than I already was. I am not averse to picking up rubbish for projects (see CHOKER) but doing it when you’re already getting strange looks for being the only westerner in a 2-mile radius is a different story. Trying to justify your strange behaviour by silently mouthing ‘it’s for an art project’ to non-English speakers only gets you so far.
Surveying my spoils, I realised that most of what I had picked up was a by-product of the fast food industry: plastic spoons, bottle tops, straws and small take-away containers. I have always hated litter but being in a country that couldn’t be more foreign I was surprised to find that I was happy to work with something familiar. I could relate to the objects without a language barrier.
When I figured I had enough material to get started I had to find ‘seeding’ supplies. I had watched Roseanne’s threading demonstration video so I was looking for silk cord and beads to ‘seed’ my waste plastics. I set off for the bazaar with my lack of Farsi and exchanged a few communicative hand gestures with the shop owner. In the end I found some glass beads and the closest thing to silk cord: synthetic silver thread.
The next challenge was to start threading. Since I was travelling with a very limited set of hand tools, a drill not being among them, I had to improvise a little. I could puncture the very thin plastics with a thick needle but had to work around the tougher bits of plastic instead of through them. I would not recommend using synthetic cord; it doesn’t make the necklace hang very naturally. Then again, it quite accurately reflects the feeling being in a country where you don’t speak the language and can’t read any signs.
Photographing the necklace was the last step before displaying it in my bedroom. Fashion is a rather sensitive area in Iran where the state has imposed modesty garments for women. This was one of the biggest challenges for me as an individual that finds a lot of expression through fashion. I hadn’t seen anyone wear a necklace in public, so I made sure to pose for my photo away from the main street. Although foreigners are not expected to adhere to the strict dress code, when in Rome…
