Turning our trash habits into live art
Hitting the Floating Goose Studios this August as part of SALA Festival, Green Wash is a new work by multidisciplinary artist Cynthia Schwertsik, in collaboration with Paul Gazzola, that throws our wastefulness into full view.
Combining performance art and painting in the expanded field, the project dives into the chaotic and clumsy ways we discard the objects that clutter our lives and homes.
Expect neither a traditional gallery nor a polished theatre show: instead, Schwertsik creates an living, evolving art installation where the public is invited to reflect on, and even contribute to, the residue of modern living.
And here’s the call to action – bring in your stuff.
Schwertsik isn’t asking for your money; just an object you don’t want any more. Large or small, old or new, soft or solid. Your donation will be transformed into part of the performance and installation. In return, you’ll get a certificate, a spot on the donor wall and the satisfaction of seeing your cast-offs become art.
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The easiest way to donate? Come to opening night on Friday, August 1, from 6pm-9pm at the Floating Goose Studios, 271 Morphett St, Kaurna Country/Adelaide, when Schwertsik’s team will be taking donations to add into the installation over the following weekends.
Green Wash will be evolving over the month of August, with donations welcomed from 12–4pm every Saturday and Sunday until August 17. The public is invited to watch the performance and installation unfold, even without a donation.
On the final weekend, August 23–24, Schwertsik will present a transformed installation shaped entirely by the residue of donations, with artwork available to purchase.
“I hope the public will take the opportunity to witness the proposition that is growing out of superfluous stuff,” Schwertsik said.
“Maybe what I am attempting to do is a radical act of ‘cutting through the crap’, so to say – and then demonstrate the futile effort of recycling, as it uses so many resources, time and other materials to become something again.
“I hope the participants will take away an expanded perspective on our choices as consumers.”
Schwertsik, a South Australian award-winning artist, has exhibited and performed throughout Europe, South Africa and Australia. Her work unfolds through an investigative and collaborative practice, with an evolving blend of contemporary performance and participatory inclusion in response to place and space.
Powerful video and photographic images of interrogations and speculations about modern-day life are treated with humour and an attitude of care. Her work takes shape in participatory projects, moving images, drawing and ephemeral interventions.
Green Wash is presented as part of Projects of the Everyday, a state-wide artist commissioning initiative by Open Space Contemporary Arts (OSCA), that seeds, develops and presents artist-led projects in innovative spaces of creativity, making and experimentation.
Book here to reserve your opening night place.
Video: George Graetz
