Rags To Riches

International Gallery (run by The Art Organisation), 34 Slater Street
13th-22nd December, Thu-Sat 12pm - 5pm, or by appointment – telephone 077 5952 5075

Reviewed by John Owen

Discussing the artwork with a director of Red Dot and artist Colin Serjent, he was quick to identify the together but separate aspect of all the participating artists, whose pieces of work reflect reuse and recycling. Wave upon wave of materials lost and found here and then gone, society throwing out, artists fishing in and collecting for the creation of art.

The impression I got is quite quirky and emotionally charged with the cigarette piece (by Jon Nash) to the reused plastic for a lampshade (by Beccy Williams); the pictures and sculptures evoke the dynamic potential inherent.

“We are an artist collective, whose aim is to promote and market the work of our twenty-six members based here in Liverpool. People have created work from waste materials and found objects. Inspired by this we came up with an exhibition recycling theme, which has a political message. There is a handout produced by Red Dot available at the gallery on the dos and don’ts of recycling.”

Fellow director Sue Milburn has beautiful postcards painted over into images of views of far off landscapes, and she also uses lines of paint pieces which placed on top of a horizontal mirror.

Colin has two abstract expressionist pictures ‘Trampled Underfoot’ and ‘Debris’, which conjures up Jackson Pollock and is rubbish in a good way so to speak.

Most of the artists are making a powerful statement, in a subtler exquisite way, from the five Gondolas of Barbara Jones recycling another Venice Biennale artist Gonzales Torres’ throwaway sheets.

The American underground has a startling amount of focus on recycling amongst practicing artist, not just radicals.

Come along see all of the artists work and make your mind up. Second, third and fourth thoughts are as good as first impressions too.

The artists involved in Rags To Riches are: Sue Millburn, Colin Serjent, Jane Fairhurst, Richard Ashworth, Beccy Williams, Steve Gent, Nicole Bartos, Barbara Jones, Elizabeth Willow, Leon Jakeman, Jon Nash and Nathan Pendlebury.

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