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Blog / Wasteware by Laura Lightbody
Wasteware by Laura Lightbody
02 Apr 2015
by Laura Lightbody
For as long as I can remember I have collected stickers. Not the fluffy, personalised stickers that grace the covers of jotters and pencil cases across the land, but everyday stickers that surround us. Stickers like 'New!'’ and 'Reduced.” A sneaky barcode left on a parcel, or the graphic on the back of a resealable packet. These are the type of patterns, symbols and motifs that inspire me the most.
I am always excited to see an unpeeled barcode on a delivered parcel, a label from a piece of fruit or a quality control sticker stuck inside a garment. These items perform a function; they provide us with specific information and are clear about what they want to tell us. I enjoy using these graphics and through appropriation, transform these familiar items into ceramic. The thrill of re-contextualising a seemingly temporary and throwaway item into a permanent motif is what keeps me motivated. The work I create uses the refuse that quietly invades our everyday, the generally un-noticed stickers, labels and signage found on consumer goods and packaging. By presenting, in a new way, what is overlooked, focusing on narrative, commentary, aesthetic qualities and graphic language, I transform the temporary to the permanence of ceramic and graphic collage.
By exhibiting a collection of my ceramics titled, ‘Wasteware’ at the Lighthouse in April, I hope to highlight our wasteful abuse of material and design, to draw attention, not just to packaging ephemera, but to the graphic sensibility embedded in each humble sticker I reproduce.
You are invited to contribute to Laura's legacy at the Lighthouse by bringing along your own throwaway graphics. Come and celebrate the minutiae of the day-to-day by donating a sticker, bar code or price tag that will provide Laura inspiration for her next collection.
Laura graduated from The Glasgow School of Art with a BA (Hons) in Ceramics in 1999. She is currently working as a designer and teacher in Glasgow and will be displaying her dinnerware in The Lighthouse Review gallery, from 9th of April-16th May.