Wirral Arts : ‘Rubbish’ show at Birkenhead Park Visitor’s Centre

Jul 20 2011 by Matt Hurst, Heswall News

A RUBBISH exhibition opened at Birkenhead Park Visitor’s Centre this week.

Alison Bailey Smith challenged a collection of Wirral artists to turn unwanted household items into works of art, for a special show entitled De-Junk, Re-Junk.

It follows last year’s creative recycling exhibition.

And in an interesting move, Alison decided to hand over the remains of her kitchen and utility room and leave the collective of craftspeople to work their magic.

Hoylake based artist Micheline Robinson has taken on Alison’s old wooden kitchen drawers to create reliefs of birds and foliage while Debbie commandeered all the old tiles and broken plates and transformed them into a mosaic.

Alison said: “The artists have taken from my hoard to recreate and develop their own creations using skills, ideas and imagination.

“The work will then be displayed on plinths and walls made from recycled materials collected from Freecycle.”

Alison will be using her jewellery skills to create an alternative version of the Mayoral chain.

Former Mayor of Wirral, Councillor Alan Jennings provided Alison with images of the chain and badge of office.

Alison then recreated it using tins and cans, as well as tubes and wire from old televisions.

Other highlights include a reproduction of a litter on a Wirral pavement, made entirely from recycled materials, and a chain mail chain created from wire ripped out of a house during rewiring.

De-Junk, Re-Junk runs at Birkenhead Park Visitor’s Centre in Birkenhead Park until July 31