Roseanne Bartley's installation Seeding the Cloud arises from her ongoing jewellery project Seeding the Cloud: A Walking Work in Progress that reconfigures the purpose jewellery plays in our lives. New Zealand born and now Melbourne based artist Bartley poses an alternate vision for engaging with and thinking through sustainability and craft, through the language of jewellery.

Her project Seeding the Cloud is a roving environmental initiative that has been in development in Melbourne and other locations in Australia since 2010. It was devised to activate a creative response to the burgeoning issue of waste plastic within our environment. Bartley posits that while jewellery can't save the world, this project provokes us to think about how jewellery can (as process and object) contribute to our endeavours to sustain our world.

Bartley states, "Confronted by Armageddon-style science and failing political leadership, I felt there was role for creating small-scale interactive processes to activate engagement with the larger issues of our time. So it was with a good dash of idealism stashed under my belt that I began to explore how the conceptual, material and social principles of jewellery could provide a model for motivating public engagement with solutions for living sustainably with the environment."

The design of the project draws upon Bartley's experience of creating interactive works that reflected on the symbolic language of jewellery, particularly the making of wearable objects from discarded materials collected from the local urban surrounds.

The works are developed from processes of walking, observing, collecting and fashioning discarded fragments of hard plastic. Initially performed as a solo work, Bartley has begun to develop the project's potential as civic work that may be taken up by individuals or small groups in neighbourhoods around the world at any time. Her hope is that the character of the project will help us to recalibrate an understanding of the individual versus public need, waste matter versus resource material, and land value versus habitat.

Objectspace Public Programme (Free - no bookings required)

Saturday 29 September, 11am at Objectspace

Exhibitor Roseanne Bartley will give a floor talk about her project Seeding the Cloud, exhibited in the Objectspace Window Gallery.

For more information on Seeding the Cloud: A walking work in progress, see Roseanne Bartley's blog: www.seedingthecloud.blogspot.com.au 

ASSOCIATED EVENTS:

In association with Artstation, Roseanne Bartley is offering a workshop and walks that provide an opportunity for members of the public to participate in her project. See full listing of events below for all details. Bookings are essential.

WORKSHOP: Friday 28 September, 9am-1pm

At Artstation, 1 Ponsonby Road, Newton

BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL: Phone 09 376 3221 or 09 307 7645

Workshop is approximately 4 hours in length $40 per person Cost includes artist talk about the project, demonstration of technique, materials, instruction booklet and all tools supplied In preparation: Go for a walk. Collect fragments of hard plastic no larger than the palm of your hand. Bring what you find to the workshop.

WALK: Saturday 29 September, 12-3pm

Meeting point at Artstation, 1 Ponsonby Road, Newton

BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL: Phone 09 376 3221 or 09 307 7645

Walk is approximately 2-3 hours in length and is conducted in the local area around Artstation $20 per person Cost includes materials and instruction booklet Walk is subject to weather.

WALK: Tuesday 2 October, 10am-1pm

Meeting point at Artstation, 1 Ponsonby Road, Newton

BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL: Phone 09 376 3221 or 09 307 7645

Walk is approximately 2-3 hours in length and is conducted in the local area around Artstation $20 per person Cost includes materials and instruction booklet Walk is subject to weather.