Tony Roberts - “Salvage”

Contemporary Urban Centre Liverpool

 Salvage: An Exhibition by Tony Roberts
10 December 2009 - 17 January 2010
Salvage is an  exhibition of bas-relief painting. The majority of this creative work has been produced utilizing discarded books, paper & card.  Flintshire artist Tony says this style came about after observing how companies discard printed material as if not valuing the research and work put into producing them.
Tony's work has been described as a cross between sculpture & painting and reminiscent of ceramics.
All books used in his art work have been the "vision and inspiration of someone", and are now given a "new dimension in a different format" where people can explore their previous purpose and meaning.
Mon: CLOSED, Tue - Sat 11am - 6pm, Sun 11am – 4pm

I really enjoyed this exhibition ! It gave me a lot of inspiration and ideas for work. The amount of texture and layers were amazing and I love how built up all the work was. Below are some pictures I took in the exhibition – I’ve tried to capture the texture in the pieces as well as the overall composition of the works which were also beautiful !

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

I love how Roberts has used ceramics mixed in with recycled paper. It gives a really nice different effect. It reminds me of a time when I experimented using plaster in my work. I may return to using this media again in this project. It lends itself to making art using found objects. Not just for creating texture but for also making interesting casts etc.

I also really like the folded metal pieces which were in the this exhibition. The way he has folded the metal in different ways but then displayed them together works really well. I’m unsure what Roberts used for these pieces but experimenting with empty cans will probably lend well to this way or working.

Ultimately this exhibition has just opened up more possibilities and ideas for my next project. The initial starting point was some discarded newsprint which has led on to me thinking about unwanted / found object and the art which can be created using this. This exhibition lent itself perfectly to this idea and by going to see it it has sparked a lot of potential ideas and ways of working I can think about experimenting with as a starting point.

Before I go back to Uni after Christmas I have to produce a 250 word statement basically outlining what it is I want to do. This may sound easy but 250 words is not a lot and I’ll probably find it really hard to stick to this ! I also have to think about some different processes / skills I would like to learn and present these along side my statement. I haven’t really thought about this too much. Back in Foundation I worked a lot with Pinhole Photography. It might be quite interesting to go back to this and produce Pinhole cameras using found objects – however this is very similar to what I have already done. It would be great to do this just to see what’s available in this area of working however I don’t want to create anything too similar to my previous work. Anyway I shall have to think a bit more with this and pinpoint specific areas I would like to gain some skills in ! Maybe sculpture? I’ve never done anything in this field before really ! Who knows….I shall get thinking !