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IIRC Se a 18 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, October 2, 1990 Bateman uses ¢ One of the most thought- provoking exhibits of art you may ever see is on now at the Scugog Library in Port Perry. In a word, this display is garbage, literally. And that's exactly why art- ist Wendy Bateman spent the last couple of years of her life working on this art and putting Goad . Ry the door. In fact, to get into the room, they will have to walk through a "curtain of garbage" hanging by string from floor to ceiling. There are old cans and bot- tles of all kinds, old running shoes, works boots, egg cartons, plastic jugs, tins that held nap- tha gas, even disposable dia- Artist Wendy Bateman has opened a unique show at the Scugog Library. It's about garbage, literally, and the mess we are making of the planet. Photo above shows Mrs. Bate- man looking through the "Ditch Curtain," nearly 70 kinds of trash that were found tossed beside the road near her Hall- burton home. Mrs. Bateman said she out to shock and pro- voke with this art exhibit (see story for details) the show to-gether. It's called "Gatherings- Ecological Creations." There are no pretty land- scapes in this show; no dainty pastel still-lifes. There is garbage in its raw- est, most ugly form, the kind we | all see in the ditches beside the roads. And there is garbage that Mrs. Bateman has woven into colourful and functional works of art. And there is the message in it all that society is choking on its own trash, and the world is in danger of suffocating from damage to the environment. In an interview with the Star last Friday, Mrs. Bateman, a dedicated environmentalist for years, said she set out to create an exhibit that would shock and provoke. "I admit to that. Most art- ists would not use garbage this way to make a statement," she said. But as much as her art will evoke negative feelings, Mrs. Bateman has worked to create positive images and feelings as well through this exhibit. Visitors to the exhibit room at the Scugog Library will be confronted with the negative the moment they_ step through _.. pers. There are more than 80 dif- ferent items in this "curtain of garbage," and all were found by Mrs. Bateman in her walks along the country road that leads to her home and studio near Haliburton. (For this show, all the gar- bage has been dis-infected to prevent the spread of germs, and diapers are new) But the message hits home that this is the kind of stuff peo- ple toss away along the road- side. The curtain that is part of the exhibit is actually just a small fraction of the trash Mrs. Bateman has collected in a year from along the roadsides near her home. Plastic, the throwaway kind, features prominently in this exhibit. Hanging from the ceiling are two "acid rain waterfalls," made from strips of plastic looped together. The plastic is in two col- ours, blue to signify the pure blue water, and yellow to repre- sent the sulfur that is acid rain. It looks pretty enough, but the message is chilling, and anyone who views the exhibit will be invited to add a loop of plastic tothe waterfall. . .. ..... But perhaps the most graphic illustration of the way the environment is being deves- tated, is the "mother earth sweat lodge." For centuries, the native peoples used sweat lodges as places to rid themselves or "sweat out" mental and physi- cal impurities. They were usu- ally made from buffalo hides stretched over willow branches. But the lodge in Mrs. Bate- man's exhibit is made from nearly 4,000 plastic bags, cut, looped and woven into seven layers. Even indoors, this plastic "sweat lodge" heats up and be- comes stifling inside. Symbolically, itis what dis- carded plastic is doing to Moth- er Earth. It is a powerful double- edged symbol of the traditional native sweat lodge used for healing and soothing, and the world that is suffocating under layers of plastic. But the exhibit contains positive messages as well, which is by design. Mrs. Bate- man said she could see the need for a balance of negative and positive. On the wall are bright, col- ourful and very functional car- ry-all bags. These carry-alls are made from plastic grocery bags that most likely would have wound up in a dump somewhere for the next 500 years. The plastic was cut into strips, looped and then woven into the carry-all bags. In the past two years, Mrs. Bateman has made nearly 150 of these bags, using nearly 10,000 plastic shopping bags, creating something useful from garbage. The Meditation Medicine Wheel, again drawn from na- tive custom, is a way of focus- sing energy in a positive fash- ion. The "wheel" is four tripods, each representing the points on the compass, and the four sea- sons. In the tripod baskets are cards, each with a message, and visitors are invited to read the cards and reflect on the messag- es. The idea for this exhibit came to Mrs. Bateman a couple of years ago. While canoeing in an isolated area near Halibur- ton, she was dismayed to see arbage to make unique arf ing the art of weaving at Sir Sandford Fleming and in Toron- to. tine water. She began to collect the plastic bags, and using her skills as a master weaver, creat- ed the plastic woven mats that Sad OT Carry-all bags are useful and functional. They are woven shopping bags cut into strips. The col an indication of how garbage can be re-u make up the sweat lodge. Then she turned to the car- ry-all bags. When she first started she had no idea the exhibit would take the final formit has. The exhibit has been two years in the making. It's been viewed by school children in Haliburton and during its time at the Scugog Library, about 400 local school children will seeit as well. Later this fall, it will go on display in Peterborough and at Sir Sandford Fleming College. Mrs. Bateman is a former Port Perry resident who devel- oped a reputation for tradition- al weaving. And after two years of weaving plastic, she said she's more than ready to return to weaving natural materials like wool and cotton. = Aw - A ied ae, Lon COC BE a an -r a Th Sr 3 Plastic strips hanging from the celling symbolize a wa- terfall, and how acid rain Is polluting the water on this plan-, et. environment won't change, and ours are bright and Hvely, and the carry-all bags are sed, rather than tossed away. But her commitment to the 5 completely from plastic neither will her belief that peo- ple can make a difference. In fact, her favourite say- ing by Margaret Mead is dis- played as part of this unique art exhibit: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful com- mitted citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." This exhibit opened last weekend at the Library and continues through to October 18, during regular library hours. Ironically, it opens at a time when Scugog Township finds itself facing garbage prob- lems with the announcement that two sites have been desig- nated in Ward 4 as potential landfills for Durham Region. This exhibit by Mrs. Bate- man is well worth the time. Let your kids take you. C60 20003000000» LE A J