Today I posted off my entry for the Paper Cup Exhibition to be held at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe. The exhibition runs from 26th June to 4th September and hopes to highlight the environmental concerns surrounding the use of disposable packaging in takeaway food, as well as breathe new life into this humble object that would normally be carelessly tossed away.
For my cup, I chose an African Drum as my model. It was difficult to work on something small and with such movement on the work surface. I used some modelling paste to create an extra rim at the bottom of the cup and make it look more like a carved wooden drum. The rest of it was painted in acrylic paints and the skin of the drum and handle are made from scraps of suede that I cut off a pair of boots I used to own!
I based the design on one of the many African hand-made bongo drums that I saw on my travels across Africa when I was younger – two of which I actually still have as mementos of my travels. The hardest part of re-creating the drum from a paper cup was getting the skin of the drum to look as though it was stretched tightly across the top of the cup! There was just not enough rigidity in the paper cup to actually stretch the suede across, so I just did the best I could.
I hope to visit the exhibition once it has started and get some photos of the rest of the exhibits – it will be really interesting to see what everyone else has created.
Brilliant Aitch! I love the idea of making a bongo drum. Will be interesting to see photos from the event and what other artists have come up with. Good luck!
Thanks, Andrea. Yes, I so am I – it’s a really unusual idea for an exhibition, isn’t it?