Shed-Collect-Shed : Coventry's Lost & Found

How can waste be viewed as beautiful or valuable?

In 2014, I was commissioned to produce a piece of work for a mixed media exhibition looking at the city of Coventry’s character through objects collected & displayed. The exhibition was hosted by the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry, within the CCCA (the Coventry Centre for Contemporary Art – a pop-up ‘shed’ originally used for a Bob & Roberta Smith installation at the Mead gallery in 2009, subsequently toured locally). The brief was to ‘creatively present found objects relating to Coventry in a way that captures a connection to the Museum’s own collection’.

I visited Coventry twice before producing a series of nine pieces of work – using found objects, & representations of them. I intended to attach significance to the objects by collecting, cleaning, classifying & re-presenting them in a new setting. I exhibited the pieces alongside works by artists Martin Green and curator, Lorsen Camps.

I helped to curate the show, designed & produced a catalogue for the exhibition & ran printmaking workshops in association with the exhibition. The theme of exploring the visual culture of waste in the UK is one I am continuing to explore through various visual communication techniques.