Concert 21st June
Instruments made from the house were played in the museum.
Drums, Kōauau (Maori Flute )and the Double BASIN .
In the first term
of 2015 Heaton Normal Intermediate School art students and their family were
offered the opportunity to be involved in the Whole House Reuse Project. *
A 1925 house, 19
Admiral’s Way, in the seriously earthquake damaged Christchurch suburb of New
Brighton, was deconstructed. Every single part of the house, from beautiful
pieces of Rimu to a pair of old socks, was saved and catalogued.
Currently many of
the houses being demolished in Christchurch are ending up in landfill, and the
potential to reuse the material contained in each house is lost. Concern for these
wasted resources resulted in a project that aims to draw attention not only to
the volume of material locked up in a typical Christchurch house but also to
the potential for reuse of that material.
The Whole House
Reuse Project invited creators to transform these materials into beautiful,
purposeful works.
I went to the old
church where the deconstructed house was stored to make a selection of pieces
to work with. As I walked around various pieces called to me to be transformed
and so the journey of repurposing them began.
I was also
provided with blocks of MDF and builders paper with which we were to produce
woodcut prints.
Ideas were work-shopped
in class, then art extension and art club students and their families were
invited to join in creating prints and furniture from these materials.
We were delighted
to be involved in this project; we admired the philosophy behind its conception
and relished the challenges it posed not only to our creativity but also to our
own attitudes about waste and recycling.
It was wonderful
to see the Heaton community working together with such excitement, fun,
commitment and passion.
We were invited
to The Whole House Reuse Exhibition opening at Canterbury Museum on June 5th
2015. As we stood beside other creators and listened to the original owners of
the house speak with such feeling about the project we were filled with an
immense sense of pride.
We are delighted
to share our work with you.
NOW OPEN
Very excited about going to the opening this Friday the 5th June and seeing all our work on show.
See the links to TV newspaper and radio below.
The lamp finally finished. David McTague did the final construction and wiring for us.
Look at the link below to see the exhibition programme. This includes a concert using instruments made from the house.
The Assembly talk by Ben, Frankie and Adam
A celebration
of year 7 and 8 creative thinking this term.
What’s in a
house?
We’ve all seen
earthquake damaged homes being demolished around Christchurch, some of you
might even have lived in one.
CERA is aiming to demolish 7839 houses. 7839.
That’s a lot of houses – and a lot of materials. And a lot of
memories and history. How much of that is just going off to be dumped in
landfill?
The Whole House Reuse project was set up to help make us
aware of just how much re-usable material there is in every one of those homes.
What they have done is take one house from the Red Zone that
is being demolished and take every single thing from it and catalogue it. And
that means every single thing - from the wood to the light fittings to
the bath tub to the tiny scraps of wallpaper, everything.
Then they have asked people to make things that are beautiful
and useful out of those things. So every part of 19 Admirals Way, New Brighton
is going to be upcycled in some way.
It’s an awesome project and Heaton is one of the few schools
to get involved thanks to
Mrs Taylor.
Mrs Taylor went and collected a pile of bits and pieces from
the house – and then our job this term was to transform them. Here at
Heaton we have two art groups – there is the Art Club that you can come along
to a couple of lunchtimes a week, and there is the Art Extension class that you
apply to join. That’s quite a few kids, but we had less than a term to get it
finished so sometimes it felt like a race against time.
To help get our families involved so we could get lots done
because that deadline was looming Mrs Taylor organised a workshop on a Saturday
where kids and their families could come along to work on the project. Having
the parents and in one case a granddad involved in the project brought in some
more hands for the construction side of the furniture making. It’s kind of
awesome that Heaton’s part of the project had three generations involved.
Let’s be honest, that pile of materials looked more like a
rubbish dump than an art store, but when we looked at with different eyes there
was all sorts of potential. We all had different ideas as we brainstormed what
we could do.
One of the big projects was to make woodcut prints and print
them on to builder’s paper and wallpaper that came from the demolished house.
This was a great way to involve lots of people. We got our inspiration from
some photos of the 19 Admirals Way - lots of people were inspired by the
wallpaper and the stained-glass window of the house and used those in their
prints. We drew up our ideas on paper and then onto a block of wood and then
cut away the background we didn’t want printed. Then we rolled ink onto them
and put them in a press. I may or may not have put my pencil in there
accidentally as well.
One set of prints were printed on the black builder’s paper.
Another set was printed on white paper, and they got used to decorate a lamp
shade from the house. Since one of the prints had that lampshade in it, I
believe there is some kind of inception going on there.
Making the prints made us think about not just all the
materials in the house but the family that lived in the house, the little boy
with the tricycle and racing car, the parents that looked out the stained glass
window each day and all the memories they must have of the house.
But what about the rest of the materials – well they needed
to get made into some objects. We had some pretty crazy ideas along the way but
by the end we had some really cool furniture and pieces that you would be
pretty proud to have in your living room.
A rimu shelf became a chair and a table
And a rubbish bin became the lampshade to shine on it.
A piece of old lino and some left over wood became a coaster
A metal drip pan became a side table
And an old broken concrete pile became a candle holder to put
on it
The door off a kitchen cupboard became a coffee table
And all those prints transformed the old lamp shade into
something pretty unique.
We loved the concepts behind this project. It helped us all
to realise that you can look beyond the obvious and recycle much more than you
initially think, but also to show how much material there is in a house
that would otherwise just go to landfill. We were also able to exercise our
creative thinking in our designs but also to consider the issues that this
project raised about resources, value, the environment and waste.
If you are keen to see more of the Whole House Reuse Project
pieces, including all our work, come to the Canterbury Museum Exhibition which
opens on June 5th and be inspired and check out the Heaton art Blog..
You may never look at that old
shelf lying at the back of your garage in the same way again.
Ben, Adam and Frankie
Whole House Reuse
This year our Art Extension will be taking part in an amazing project called
The Whole House Reuse , a project facilitated by ReKindle
Have a look at their web page to see the House from Christchurch that has been dismantled. All the pieces have been saved and will me made into new items and artworks.
The finished pieces will go on display in The Canterbury Museum.
The Whole House Reuse , a project facilitated by ReKindle
Have a look at their web page to see the House from Christchurch that has been dismantled. All the pieces have been saved and will me made into new items and artworks.
The finished pieces will go on display in The Canterbury Museum.
We have already started putting some design ideas together.
Kate McIntyre , the project manager came to see us in Art Club on 18th February. She loved our ideas and chatting to us.
My Memorial chair #018
Joined timber Rimu, with shelf rungs both sides, lemon yellow paint W290 x L2800mm Quantity: 1 Reference #018
This Rimu shelf called to me whilst looking for materials to take back to school. I was inspired by some Malawi chairs I have at home, the chairs in the One Tree Project by Robert Kilvington and the White Chair Memorial in Christchurch. I love the simplicity of the construction. I chose to make the chair on the 4th anniversary of the earthquakes. The nail design at the top of the chair is taken from the orange and yellow flower wall paper in the house. 186 nails were used, one for each person who died.
Other numbers to be included in the design; 19 the number of the house; 8061 the postcode; 22/2/11, #018.
The chair pieces may be reversed. One side remains untouched, the other has been sanded and polished with beeswax
22/2/15
 |
| The shelf |
 |
| The chair assembled |
 |
| The chair next to it's inspiration from Malawi |
24/2/15
 |
| The photocopied wallpaper is positioned on the wood |
 |
| The side of the chair with the nailed flower is polished with beeswax, the reserve sides are left in their original state. |
 |
| Susan and Kate |
 |
| Franki's print of the owners of the house |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.