Environmental Art Award 2009

Winners Announced For The Environmental Arts Award

Liverpool Chamber's Environmental Arts Award was held to encourage a creative response to Liverpool's Year of the Environment 2009.

We hosted an exhibition during the evening of our Annual Dinner on 26 November. During this event a judging panel selected a winner and runner-up.

Below are the winning artists plus all the others who made up the shortlist for this year's award.

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First Prize

Ilsa Parry
Swarth
Aluminium Swarth, 30 x 30 x 30 cm

It's a light - made from Swarth!

Engineers use up tons of aluminium every year in turning metal using lathes to crate bespoke fittings and small product runs. When something is formed using a lathe, there is a waste product know as Swarth (this looks like curly springs). To make further use of this by-product it can be recycled, but - this uses energy in itself and also requires separation of the swarth (very difficult when several metals types have been used together).

The Swarth product represents how one man's junk can become another man's treasure simply by changing its context.

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Second Prize - The People's Choice Award

Jennifer Hall
Silly Sock Monster
100 % Re-used Socks, 300 x 200 mm

As a teacher of Design and Technology in an all-boys school, I was asked to create a textiles project that would capture the boy's imagination. I decided that I would cover the issues of the four R's (recycle, re-use, renew, reduce) and incorporate these into an innovative product.

The "Silly Sock Monsters" have been a huge success with the year eight boys. Not only have they been creative with their designs but these "Silly Sock Monsters" have captured their imagination and got them thinking about objects they discard everyday in a new and exciting way. I believe that our future counts on the education of the younger members of our society, if we can inspire them now, they will produce a cleaner environment for future generations.

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Alison Bailey Smith
Electra
Wrapped Wire Sculpture, Approximately 6 ft in height

The sculpture is a figure that represents the joy of life.

She is made from wire reclaimed from the building trade, the internal structure is made from re-inforcing bars from the local scrap yard with re-cycled lead.

The only new items included are the clout nails on the shoes.

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Ann Ellis
Environmental Heroes
Recycled plastics, aluminium, textiles, 48 cm x 6 cm (drop)

Constructed entirely from recycled and waste materials, each bead is a portrait of one of the environmental heroes list complied by Time magazine (reduced portrait, re-used and recycled materials).

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Inmate HMP Altcourse
Remotorcycle
Scrap metal, lifesize

The work was done by one of the prisoners working in the engineering workshop. He used the scrap pieces of metal left over from some of the items being made in the workshop.The work was mainly carried out during break times or when there was a halt in production.

The prisoner was able to hone his skills in making intricate shapes and joins and improve his problem solving skills to produce the wheels etc. on the bike, from just scrap metal.

He chose a motorbike because of his interest in the history of motorcycles.

He was able to share his work with other prisoners and re-kindle their interest in education and vocational training.

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Nick Jones
Drowned World
Acrylic on recycled cardboard, 53 x 50 cm

This work takes its title from a JG Ballard novel that is set in a world where water levels have risen due to climate change.

The painting shows a lonely figure (suited human or robot?) wading through the flood waters under a yellow sky.

It is painted on a recycled computer parts box.

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Carol Ramsay
Musical Chair
Recycled Parquet, velvet, ipod speakers.

My work is crafted from an old parquet dance floor, all I know is that it had been rescued from a demolition site of a previously well known dance hall in Stockport that had been greatly used during the war years.

I wanted to bring back its former glory and remember the times that would have been had, dancing upon it. Originally I made a piece of work called "Dance floor", I hung the parquet with its bitumen and scratches, suspended from a ceiling where it could sway and move, itself becoming the dancer.

Then I used the wood to make a second version of an old fashioned design, in the back I have placed small iPod speakers, viewers can plug in their own iPods', rest their head back and listen to their own music whilst sat in the chair, reflecting upon past history, previous lives and abandoned items can be reused and restored.

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Carol Ryder
Lily
Textile, 37 x 30 cm

"Lily" - a textile portrait of Lily Cole, model and "darling" of the current London fashion scene - was completed by Carol Ryder in August 2008.

The "canvas" for the portrait is a patchwork of small squares of salvaged fabric which represents Ryder's concerns with sustainability and draws a comparison between what is represented by the subject matter (fashion equals impermanence and wastefulness) and the materials and medium used (textile techniques equals permanence and sustainability).

In "Lily", the face of Lily Cole has been executed using a computerised embroidery machine - a swift, mechanical process - while the area surrounding the face has been minutely and painstakingly hand -stitched: in this instance "fashion" and the impermanence it represents is subordinated by permanence and time-consumption.

The permanence of the artwork compared to the impermanence of the subject highlights another irony: it is likely that this textile portrait will exist long after its subject has faded from public life.

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Dom Wilson
Pop Art Potential
Aluminium, lead and solder, 63 x 77 cm

This work borrows its title from the Pop Art movement, which was a style that relied heavily on the use of everyday objects.

The idea behind this piece was to re-use already spend objects, give them a colourful makeover and present them as brand new, aiming for a vibrant and shiny quality, that might hopefully bring about a reprisal of their aesthetic worth. This is a fun and playful work with a serious message.

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All images remain copyright of the artist.

Supporting Liverpool's Year of the Environment 2009