Sculpture
A New Lease of Life
After 'Eric' was taken down from the front of the gallery I wanted him to have a new lease of life and so I donated him to St Michael in the Hamlet School. As part of the school's Remembrance activities he was given a fresh coat of paint and a large poppy to mark Remembrance Day.
On the 19 December 2014 the stunning sculpture by artist Andy Edwards was brought to the school for the children to see and a poppy from the Tower of London installation was placed in the hand of the British soldier.
Positive Thinking - 'Eric' (Re-used and Recycled Plastic) - designed & made by Nic Corke
November 2011- March 2011
Whatever your thoughts are regarding 'Climate Change' and its 'causes' one thing is very clear - humans are very wasteful. Recycling and reusing materials rather than burying or burning them is something we all should and must try and do now and in the future.Unlike 2008 the Liverpool 2010 Biennial was a rather joyless affair with little if anything for children to enjoy like the giant spider in exchange Flags in 2008 I thought I would make something fun and entertaining which made a positive statement about the importance of reusing materials positively - especially plastic.When you consider the facts about plastic bottles the figures are frightening but recycling them is a very positive choice:In 2009, 577,778 tonnes of plastic bottles were produced in the UK in total.
Plastic bottles make up about 8% of the domestic waste stream.
Uk households consume 15 million plastic bottles every day.
260,000 tonnes of plastic bottles were collected for recycling (45% of all plastic bottles in UK).
This means that 317,778 tonnes were disposed of predominantly to landfill.
It can take up to 500 years for plastics to degrade in landfill.
In environmental terms recycling of plastics is one of the most beneficial activities because of the oil and energy embedded within the products.
Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to light one 60 watt bulb for 6 hours.
In terms of carbon, the savings from recycling 260,000 tonnes of plastic bottles is 325,000 tonnes of CO2. This is the equivalent of 57932 return flights from London-Sydney.
So I hope you enjoy the installation 'Bring Me Sunshine' and the figure - he's called Eric because he is doing the Eric & Ernie dance which was to the tune Positve Thinking
The bottle sculpture on the front of the gallery was designed and constructed by Nic Corke using 168 recycled plastic bottles.
The figure is held together by 3.8mm galvanised wire which runs throughout the structure which is secured (temporarily) on the building by 16mm roll bolts.
The sculpture was sponsored by Bagnall & Morris Waste Services who supplied the plastic bottles used to create the figure.