The Adlington Post

A material which is freely & easily available in quantity is the plastic core flute which is used for real estate signs. I cut one up into a couple of fish shapes. they are about 2 feet or 60cm long. Once I figured out that the shape was more dynamic when cut on an angle the fish came alive! Later I will cut some more & maybe make a mobile with them. SOLD See more of my recycled and upcycled works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

On Saturday I drove to South Auckland to the Polynesian suburb of Otara where there is a big market on Saturday mornings. I bought this funky recycled tiki at one of the jewellery stalls. There is a lot of paua-shell jewellery for sale, & evidently stocks of this shell are being depleted. Some enterprising person has come up with the idea of using chips of shell left over from the cutting process - they have made a mould, mixed the paua chips with fibreglass & cast the image. I was also amused to see this flag flying above a stall selling contact lenses!

This mobile is for sale at Buana Satu in K Rd. "As the natural resources of our world are depleted, they become replaced by an environment of manufactured objects, and in turn these industrial artefacts become the raw materials from which we must produce more. For many people this crude reality is unbearable. The role of the recycled artist is to refashion new visions of our world from its leavings, transforming not only objects but meanings, and introducing new ways of experiencing and imagining our world and ourselves. Art is therefore the process whereby we can transform the crudeness of reality and make our world bearable." -adapted from “The Recycling Strategies of Self-Taught Artists” by J Cubbs & EW Metcalf in “Recycled Re-Seen - Folk Art from the Global Scrap Heap” by Charlene Cerny See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

This week is annual inorganic rubbish collection time in my area. People can put out almost any rubbish which is too large to go into their weekly bin. I have had great fun driving round in my van picking stuff out for use in recycled artworks. There is lots of stuff to look at and make selections from. There are some things I am looking for for projects (flip-flops & CD’s), otherwise my rule-of-thumb is “what in this pile has sculptural qualities?” - this takes an imaginative ‘eye’ - & hopefully I am getting better at it. Ideal finds include anything with “kiwina-kitsch” connotations - unfortunately these are hard to come by, tho I did find this little folk-art kiwi.

Working with these flowers cut from egg cartons found in dumpsters is good fun. I have used the back of real-estate signs as the background for these pieces - the flowers are attached with screws. See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

This face is on a small canvas [2inx3in] & was put together in a few seconds. The pieces are not fixed down so I can play with the image infinitely. This is the beauty of digital photography with this sort of art...the assemblage is ephemeral...the photograph is the artwork. See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

I now have two golliwogs in my collection - the chappie on the left was my Mother’s...he lived at the top of the stairs for many years & looks like he was made from recycled wool. The cheerful fellow on the right is new - I bought him at my local charity shop. They are having a great time together & I am looking everywhere for more! Maybe I will have to make some?

This fish-hook is about 2 ft high & is cut out a piece of copper sheet from a hot-water cylinder I found in the kerbside collection. I have painted it black & am thinking of bronzing or gilding it??? In Maori mythology the super-human trickster Maui fished up the North Island from the sea. The traditional names for this island group commemmorate this feat: The North Island is Te Ikaroa-a-Maui (“The Long Fish of Maui”). The South Island is Te Waka-a-Maui (“The Canoe of Maui”). Stewart Island in the far south is the legendary anchor of our hero’s canoe: Te Punga-a-Maui, while the Mahia Peninsula in the east is identified as Maui’s fish-hook: Te Matau-a-Maui. SOLD See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

When I was in Napier last summer I spent time out at Haumoana beach, just south of Napier. (“hau” = wind/breath, “moana” = sea/ocean...so “breath/breathing of the ocean” I guess) There is no sand here on this rugged west coast shore - but zillions of small black pebbles instead. The waves roll them up & down the steep beach......& the sound is amazing, just like the sea breathing in & out. I took a short video too, & love to listen to it with the sound up LOUD! One day I drove the van onto the beach & when I jumped out - this incredible piece of art was right at my feet. People had lit a bonfire & thrown pieces of thin alloy metal from a car into the flames - which melted & later solidified into this fabulous amorphous shape. On the back of the piece are stuck hundreds of stones from the beach....a great memento of my happy beach combing days at Haumoana.

I I made this motorcycle from beer bottle pull-tabs found in the trash a short while ago. Yesterday, Blake, the 9 year-old boy from next door, came to visit - he loves to help me unload the van & see what I have found in my wanderings....after we unloaded my haul, he asked if he could make something from my pull-tab collection; & in 5 minutes he had sellotaped this figure together! - I think it’s fantastic..he really has a gift for assemblage - another budding bricoleur!! See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

Last week I found a video on Alexander Calder in the library. What most intrigued me was the graceful way his gigantic mobiles danced in space - the static images in books give no hint of this beauty. Another aspect I found interesting was the fact that the connecting wires are not all straight, as one sees in most commercial versions of this art form, in contrast Calder’s wires curve aerodynamically. Yesterday I bought some suitable wire & got to work.....& it’s not that easy!! As a jeweller, small constructions appeal to me, so I tried my hand on a miniature scale using discs cut from plastic bottle tops, & then some plastic tiki from the souvenir shop.....I was quite pleased with the results, & am at present working on a larger version for submission to an art competition. A slight breath sets the pieces into action - spinning & bobbing. and under a directed light they cast the most fantastic shadows on the wall. I look forward to making videos of this poet

I found these bicycle parts in a dumpster recently. The wires are the brake cables - I am not sure whether to leave them on or cut them off? I kind of like them. A possible title for this piece is “No Bull” - references to Picasso’s original sculpture & Magritte’s “This is not a pipe” being intentional. Otherwise it could be a “Recyclabull”? See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

Another of my entries in the Mairangi Arts show was a board game with a “save the planet from yourself” theme. I tore images from magazines & glued them onto a piece of foam-core I found. The work sold - tho now I almost wish it hadn’t....I would have liked to look at it for a while longer! SOLD See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com See more culture jamming and adbusting at www.culture-jam.blogspot.com

I have been continuing to make jewellery - & my latest range is made from kitsch items of Kiwi (NZ) tourist culture. The tiki earrings here are made from plastic tiki from the tourist shops..I have painted them gold & given them red eyes. My artist friend Mere Keating in Wanganui (www.flaxweaving.co.nz) bought some jewellery from me when I visited in March to sell in her gallery at the Mungamahu Hotel. Recently some of Mere’s flax weaving featured in a fashion show at the Sargent Gallery in Wanganui, & she chose my tiki as accessories: thanks to Elle for modelling them. See more of my trashion as well as recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

This robot has an old metal toaster for a body, which I found in a skip. His antennae is a toy helicopter. Attached to the back of his head is a toy telephone which works! - When you press the buttons it either beeps or a metallic voice says “Hello....Leave a message at the sound of the beep...Goodbye”. SOLD See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com ____________________________________________

These plastic fish are soy sauce bottles which I found locally in the trash. I have filled them with electric-green beads. See more of my trashion pieces as well as recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

Last summer I spent a few days at Lake Taupo (an enormous volcanic crater-lake in the center of the North Island). Early one morning I went down to the lake’s shore to look for pumice for jewellery & sculptures. In the car park I found several bottle caps discarded by drinkers the night before, I gathered them up & threw them onto a rock by the lake’s edge & took this photo. To me the pic says a lot about the thoughtless disposal of rubbish.

This lei (Polynesian necklace) is over 5ft (nearly 2M) long & is made from flowers cut from egg cartons threaded on thick fishing line which I found on Castlecliff beach in Wanganui. The restaurants here in Browns Bay throw heaps of coloured egg trays out every week & I gather them up on my daily round of local trash sites and dumpsters. See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

A recycled car-tyre swan .......or is it a flamingo? This beautiful bird is made from a car tyre. They used to be quite common in front gardens here in NZ when I was a kid - long ago last century. You hardly see them anymore & I was pleased to find this one up north. I am trying to figure out how to make them - evidently there is a trick in turning the tyre inside-out. Sourcing tyres without steel webbing is also an issue. If anyone has any tips either way I would be grateful for some assistance.

This is my first truck made from tin cans from the trash - I was especially pleased that a piece of cut-off metal from my own trash can was ideally suited to be smoke from the exhaust stack! The driver is the Zig Zag Man (here in NZ he is on the cover of packets of cigarette papers for rolling tobacco) & his companion is MM herself. The back door opens to reveal a cargo of party-poppers - small bottles which shoot streamers into the air with a “bang” when you pull the string. These square tins are harder to find than the round ones - so I am keeping my eyes open. I got the idea for this piece from a fantastic book “The Fine Art of the Tin Can” by Bobby Hansson. Thanks mate for all the inspiration! SOLD See more of my recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

This robot made from tins from my trash can was another entry in the Mairangi Arts Centre exhibition. He has sardine cans for feet, & his legs are filled with scrap metal & sand to keep him stable. I think the “cigar” in his mouth makes him look a little like Clint Eastwood!? SOLD See more of my  recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

I have always admired the works of Andy Goldsworthy, & have often said “If only I could see as he does”! With my growing interest in trash, I am beginning to see in my OWN way - jandals are fish, in tin cans I see arms/legs/bodies of robots, or parts for trucks. Other broken, worn pieces of metal & plastic are ideally suited for inclusion in assemblage works concerning the environment. Recently I returned from beachcombing with a bag of pieces of plastic. I emptied the bag out onto the floor, & immediately “saw” a spontaneously-produced composition. I took a photo, them threw the pieces again..& again. The results are here. Andy G. performs “throws” with dust & sticks - which don’t particularly appeal to me, but I can see that the approach has a lot of potential....these are my first efforts along these lines- it’s great fun! See more of my  recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

Every Sunday I make the rounds of several skips [dumpsters] in the industrial estate & outside charity shops. Sometimes I come home with very little, other times I find some real gems...all raw materials for robots, clocks, mobiles etc. I take a stepladder to get up to the bigger skips, & have large boxes in the van to hold the goodies. I also take a crowbar, wire-cutters, a hammer, & a wrench - so that I can free/undo the bits I want. At present it is winter here, down-under, so I am often out there in the cold rain. I take a thermos of hot water with me & afterwards park-up beside the beach & enjoy a large cup of tea & a biscuit - before talking a walk on the beach in search of flotsam & jetsam. The green skip is outside the scrap-metal dealers, I have also shown its contents last week - it was very full, & I couldn’t delve very deeply. I got some tins (robots & trucks), 2 pair of gardening shears (hands for a figure?), & some barbell wei

Last month I entered 5 pieces into a local art exhibition entitled "Paper, Plastic, Packaging" - all entries had to be made from recycled/reclaimed materials. I was pleased & most surprised to win first prize with my entry "Flip-Flop Fish" - comprising fish shapes cut from jandals/thongs/flip-flops {call them what you will} which I found on beaches during my summer travels in my camper-van around the North Island. They looked a little boring, all being plain colours, so I splashed some paint on them a la Jack the Dripper [Jackson Pollock] - & they came out pretty well. Will post the other entries over the next few days. At present I am working on a mobile Alexander Calder-style using more flip-flop fish - it's great making something which moves: painting certainly is dead! SOLD See more of my  recycled, upcycled and environmental works at www.martinadlington.webs.com

I found an old children’s book at the local market several weeks ago. Inside the cover is a certificate saying that it was presented to one Diane Goldsbury (S2) at Waitahinga School in 1957. What a gem! These cheerful chappies appear inside: can you spot the golliwog twins?

MISSION STATEMENT An unbearable reality of present-day life is that as the natural resources of our world are depleted, they become replaced by an environment of manufactured objects, and these industrial artefacts become the raw materials from which we must produce more. The role of the recycled artist (the bricoleur) is to refashion new visions of our world from its leavings, transforming not only objects but meanings, and introducing new ways of experiencing and imagining our world and ourselves. In many ways recycling - or the process of borrowing, quoting, and recontextualizing objects, images and ideas - is the best metaphor for the way in which meaning is constructed and understood in our contemporary world. Art is therefore the process whereby we transform the crudity of our world and make it bearable. *********************************************************** I have made art & craft work from recycled materials all my life, but I am now concentrating on that as