Artist-in-Residence 2000
Funded by
Arts Council England
Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust www.cwmet.org.uk
Cumbria County Council  www.cumbria-artefacts.org.uk

Host WCF Alympas, Aspatria

Jac Scott devised and delivered a 12 month creative programme including a 5 month residency with industrial hosts WCF ALympas. The recycling company recovered and removed industrial waste.  The programme culminated in 2 solo touring exhibitions.  A major show at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle touring to the Dock Museum in Barrow.  A smaller, wall based exhibition, toured around Cumbrian libraries.  The main exhibition featured the sculpture collection and wall based artwork including photomontages, text based panels and mixed-media collages.  Its aim was to create a dialogue with the audience through art to which the public could form an intellectual attachment, whilst informing and entertaining them about a most unappealing subject: their rubbish.  The project attracted widespread media interest including three television features.

Background to the programme
The consumer culture of the late twentieth century has been championed by corporate producers and advertisers, who have not only built obsolescence into products, but have shaped the mental attitudes of consumers to accept a throw away spirit.  This nurtures a belief that the creation of waste is not only an acceptable part of progress but essential for prosperity to continue.  As a society preoccupied with material wealth the issue is not only how many possessions we accumulate but also how quickly we can change them.  The power of rubbish is such that the discarded object is not only considered worthless, but also no longer the responsibility of the owner.  It is this assumed absence of responsibility that is particularly intriguing.  We all produce rubbish.  Everything which passes through our hands or through our bodies becomes waste and yet as soon as it is discarded it is perceived as no longer of any value.  Once this decision is made the waste is treated as something disorderly, unsanitary and even dangerous.  It is perhaps ironic that as a society we toil to satisfy our acquisitive nature: but that we quickly tire of and discard our possessions.  Ultimately both we and they end up buried in the ground.

Concept behind the collection
In ‘Wasted.  “Are you sitting comfortably?”’ the collection of work was based on the theme of home comforts.  We live in a society preoccupied with creating a home that speaks of comfort and luxury, filled with the ‘absolute necessities’ of life, including the essential ‘comfy’ chair.  The familiar form of the ‘comfy chair’ was identified as an accessible representational model.  Its strength was heightened by its potential to impact the importance of the message through gigantism.  The audience was challenged directly with the subtitle and subversively through the unconventional use of waste materials.  Discarded matter as diverse as compost, plastic carrier bags, foam, newspaper and aluminium cans were assembled to form giant chairs.  The sculptures purposefully delighted in embracing wit and humour to ignite responses.  The potential for evoking a dialogue with the audience is considered vital in the philosophy to inform and empower the individual to align to a communal sense of purpose to make changes and therefore make a difference to waste management practices.