Axisweb Curated Prize
As part of my research for the Axisweb Curated Prize, I interview the artists in my selection on their use of rubbish/waste/discards.
Interview with Jennie Driver (Part 1)
AB: Why do you work with rubbish/trash/discards?
JD: I did not set out to work with discarded documents- I started through my spike it project- I had been writing many documents, funding applications, reports etc when I decided to make a 6ft spike to impale the waste onto- this need was borne out of a need for a cathartic act. This led to the spike it project where office workers were invited to impale their waste paper. This then lead me to an interest in waste paper issues. The journey continued when I saw waste paper being loaded in containers
To go to Landfill oversees. I then visited waste recycling facilities here and saw the scale of the problem. For a while I became very excited at research on paper use/ waste production/ recycling etc across the world. However I have returned to using my own production of waste and of those whom I have a specific connection with. I have been known to visit some businesses to shred on their premises, especially at printers where I am enable to shred by colour!
AB: Do you have a preferred term for those materials?
JD: No.
AB: Where do you source your materials from?
JD: The material for Surplus Remains were the publicity documents for a previous exhibition at South Hill Park. This made the work site relevant. In other works I have used shredded paper form a variety of sources including, the waste from the Art Space Portsmouth office (where I am Vice Chair and therefore involved in the production of documents and bureaucracy). Other shredded paper comes from my office of past administrative work- on funding applications, art reports etc produced during working as a Creative Consultant. In another work, Mind Thought & Reality, I shredded a years notes from my daughters Philosophy Degree.
AB: What criteria do you have when sourcing your materials?
JD: Some of this is addressed above. I have a history of engaging audiences in my work. (This is an important part of my practice and I always choose as a starting point for my work a common action or object that everyone has a pre-existing relationship with. This is important to me to make my work accessible and to enable people to place their own emotional connection/ reading onto.) This means that through the process of making work I make connections with people – and from this comes many unsolicited donations of shredded paper or unwanted paperwork for me to use in creating works.
I have waiting in my studio a PDF document on Freud. I am waiting for a suitable and relevant site to create an installation with this.
