Remnant Works

7th Feb 202013th Jul 2021 by zoehillyard In Exhibitions

Remnant Works is a collaboration with arts based researcher and ceramicist, Emma Bowen. It explores the relationship between our making practices and circular design thinking. Utilising material remnants from other processes (fashion design, growing produce) and piggybacking on activities that would happen anyway, we are interested in harnessing the creative potential, maximising the investment already being made in terms of resources and labour.

In December 2019, fashion designer and academic Sabine Lettman presented otherways[project] at Centrala Gallery – a circular fashion concept collection that united a range of sustainability strategies to promote a shift from ownership to usership.

Featuring in this exhibition, Walking Distance – Fashion on a Different Route, Remnant Works’ first project made use of off-cuts of fabrics from Sabine’s garments, combining them with wild-clay processed and fired at Moor Green Allotments in Birmingham.

Having fulfilled an artistic purpose, the form created will be placed back into the allotment environment to learn from its decomposition. A few years ago author, Sara Maitland, imagined one of my ceramicpatchwork vessels as a home for a family of jackdaws, weaving the work into the narrative of a fairy story. This research opens up such a possibility!

The aim of Remnant Works research is to contribute to knowledge about usership within the ‘end of life’ stage of circular design.