In my previous post, Mark commented on how it may be difficult to give certain materials a second life, which could make the implementation of the circular economy in the art industry difficult. Could the issue lie within the materials themselves or is it something deeper? Let’s take a look!

To start off, is it possible to give new life to old materials? Yes, definitely! Something that caught my eye was how my teacher taught us how to make our own palettes. Instead of buying new plastic palettes, she collected old pieces of clear plastic and cardboard for us. To make a palette, all you need to do is tape a clear plastic sheet over the cardboard and voila, you have a reusable palette! You can even place a piece of recycled paper over the cardboard before covering it with plastic to have a white base for mixing colours. It all sounds fun but is it really that easy to implement circular economy practices in other areas of the art industry or for other art materials? Well, it may not be that straightforward.

How to make your own palette

While artists could easily come up with creative ways to reuse materials, it could be challenging for art material manufacturers to make similar changes. A paper by Hopkinson et al cites that manufacturers may find it hard to move towards the circular economy as it would demand them to make large-scale changes to long-established production processes. Not only would it require lots of innovation to alter existing practices, manufacturers would also need to spend more resources to implement technologies or expertise required to make production more sustainable (Hopkinson et al, 2018). Furthermore, economically viable greener materials are harder to find when it comes to high-quality art material production due to the nature of the materials themselves, adding to the challenge. Even if companies do start to move towards the circular economy, it might take some time before environmental benefits to take full effect.

Although shifting the art industry towards the circular economy may help increase employment in greener industries, it could also result in a loss of jobs in industries deemed to be “less sustainable” like petroleum extraction (Moss, 2019). If you’re wondering how petroleum may relate to art, producing plastic for art material packaging involves petroleum (EIA, n.d.). Helping displaced workers to transition to sustainable industries is no easy feat either, further adding to the difficulty of pushing for a circular approach in art material production.

Seeing all the possible challenges it may pose, is it really worth switching to the circular economy then? Although there may be some troubles during the transition, I still believe that its long-term environmental benefits outweigh the costs that come with sticking to the linear economy. While we may not be able to reach a compromise for every step in a material’s life cycle, we can still encourage manufacturing companies to adopt sustainable practices when they can and do our best to reduce our own waste when practising art.

References

Hopkinson, P. et al. (2018). Managing a Complex Global Circular Economy Business Model: Opportunities and Challenges. California Management Review. 60(3), 71-94. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0008125618764692?casa_token=pXoagi2GJ_8AAAAA%3AQSvQsIHNfSahgexhCsf7GzXvALpqvXd23N7V59zSxhlNp2yYOVrcFaJFGVpxyxKoEaAit6G7id0f#articleCitationDownloadContainer. 

Moss, K. (2019). Here’s what could go wrong with the circular economy – and how to keep it on track. Retrieved from https://www.eco-business.com/opinion/heres-what-could-go-wrong-with-the-circular-economy-and-how-to-keep-it-on-track/

U.S. Energy Information and Administration. (n.d.) How much oil is used to make plastic? Retrieved from https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=34&t=6#:~:text=Plastics%20are%20produced%20from%20natural,derived%20from%20crude%20oil%20refining.&text=The%20majority%20of%20HGLs%20produced,at%20crude%20oil%2Fpetroleum%20refineries.

Have you ever regretted a purchase? I definitely have. Collecting art materials is a guilty pleasure for me. Every time I stepped into Art Friend, I would walk out with something new, even if I didn’t need it. By the time I discovered that this was getting out of hand, it was too late and my shelves were already filled to the brim. In the end, I only used a small handful of these materials and the rest just sat there. Tired of keeping all these extra materials, I ended up throwing some of them away (which was an absolute mistake).

My art material stash (still a lot even after clearing some off)

Thinking back on my (shameful) actions made me realise how I fell victim to the linear economy. What exactly is the linear economy? The linear economy is a phenomenon where products experience a one-way life cycle. An item is created, used and then disposed of once it reaches the end of its lifespan (Government of the Netherlands, n.d.). Profit is generated from this model by producing more and purchasing higher quantities, which can encourage wasteful consuming habits. Unfortunately, many of the art materials I use follow this life cycle (in some cases, I even skip the usage step and go straight to disposal), which definitely adds to the amount of waste I produce from practising art. Is there any solution to this?

Thankfully there is, and that’s where the circular economy comes in! Through such an economy, resources are incorporated back into the cycle of production or are actively reused. As such, a smaller amount of resources is maximised, cutting down on both the amount we consume and waste (Sariatli, 2017). How can this be applied to our art practice? We can start to move towards such a cycle by selling or donating old art materials to others instead of disposing of them. By keeping them out of the trash, their lifespans can be prolonged and remain in use for a longer period of time! Not only would this help to cut down on waste, it would also help your pre-loved art materials to find a new and loving home! Determined to amend my past mistakes, I have begun to sell or give away my leftover art materials.

Revisiting the circular economy concept made me wonder if others did the same too! As such, I conducted a survey among my artist friends to see how they managed their art practice. When asked about what they do with unused materials, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that 64.8% of the respondents opted to donate, sell, reuse leftover materials.

Furthermore, 88.2% of the participants also expressed that they were willing to make changes towards sustainability, suggesting that artists are becoming increasingly aware of the waste their practice may create.

While my sample size is a little small, I still think it’s great that more artists are adopting the circular economy approach and perhaps we can all begin to practice art sustainably by starting with small actions like these!

References

Government of the Netherlands. (n.d.) From a linear to a circular economy. Retrieved from https://www.government.nl/topics/circular-economy/from-a-linear-to-a-circular-economy. 

Sariatli, F. (2017). Linear Economy Versus Circular Economy: A Comparative and Analyzer Study for Optimization of Economy for Sustainability. Visegrad Journal on Bioeconomy and Sustainable Development, 6(1), 31-34. Retrieved from https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/vjbsd/6/1/article-p31.xml.

Hello and welcome back! Today we will be covering the most fulfilling part of the art journey, the art exhibition! After spending countless hours working on art pieces, the time has come to share them with the world. Last year, I had the chance to showcase my artworks at my school’s graduation show and it was a surreal experience that I will never forget. While I had a fun time setting up my space, I couldn’t help but think about some of the impacts that art exhibitions can have on the environment. Let’s look into this a little more!

My final year exhibition

As discussed in an earlier post, we talked about how wasteful creating the artworks themselves can be, but it doesn’t stop there. Beyond the artworks, one of the most wasteful practices when it comes to maintaining art exhibitions is excessive air-conditioner usage. Not only do we waste lots of electricity from this practice, we also add to greenhouse gas emissions from the increased electricity usage, which can exacerbate climate change (Hill, 2018).

So, how bad is the impact of a student exhibition exactly? Our graduation show ran for about 7 days from 12pm to 8pm each day and the air-conditioner was turned on throughout its duration. I thought it would be interesting to calculate how much electricity we actually used for the show so I went to search for some data! According to Vivint Solar’s company website, the wattage of an air-conditioner can be as high as 3500 watts per hour (Vivint Solar, n.d.). Multiplying this value by the duration of the show, we would have used a grand total of 196,000 watts of electricity from the air-conditioning alone!

After seeing how much energy is consumed, this begs the question: is keeping the air-conditioner on throughout an exhibition really necessary? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. High humidity levels can promote mould growth and cause certain pigments to fade (Aslan, 2018). As such, stringent atmospheric controls are recommended to help maintain the physical integrity of the artwork (Moskalyuk et al, 2016), and sadly such measures include the use of air-conditioning to dehumidify exhibition spaces. Although it may be a little difficult to compromise on this part, we can still do our best to look out for more energy-efficient air-conditioner models to help cut down our energy usage at art exhibitions. Perhaps in the future there may be even more environmentally sustainable ways to maintain optimal atmospheric conditions at art exhibitions!

References

Aslan, A. (2018). Why Is It Important to Maintain Humidity of Art Galleries? Retrieved from https://artefuse.com/2018/09/02/why-is-it-important-to-maintain-humidity-of-art-galleries/.

Hill, T. (2018). High time Singapore does something about its inefficient reliance on air-conditioning. TODAY. Retrieved from https://www.todayonline.com/commentary/high-time-singapore-does-something-about-its-inefficient-reliance-air-conditioning.

Vivint Solar. (n.d.). How much electricity does a ceiling fan use? Retrieved from https://www.vivintsolar.com/blog/how-much-electricity-does-a-ceiling-fan-use.

Moskalyuk, V. M. et al. (2016). Study of air conditioning systems for storage and display of artworks. ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 11(23), 13878-13883. Retrieved from http://www.arpnjournals.org/jeas/research_papers/rp_2016/jeas_1216_5468.pdf.

Welcome to the world of pottery and ceramics! Pottery is the art of creating forms out of clay and firing or drying them to maintain their desired structure. This ancient art form has a great history and the earliest records of pottery production date back as far as 16,500-14,920 years ago (Violatti, 2014). As the art form developed, three main types of pottery emerged: earthenware, stoneware and porcelain (Savage, 2020). I had the opportunity to work with stoneware and I’ll be sharing more on the process behind one of my graduation show artworks, Crack 2.0 (2019), as well as estimating its carbon footprint.

Crack 2.0 explores the stretching and manipulation of the clay medium. To expand on this concept, I made fifteen small discs out of stoneware clay and stretched them by pushing them inwards with my thumbs. The pieces were then bisque fired to a temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius in an electric kiln. After the first round of firing, I glazed them with a layer of red iron oxide to emphasise the cracks created. Finally, the work was sent for one last round of glaze firing. Here is the finished work!

Close up of “Crack 2.0” (2019)

My artwork “Crack 2.0” (2019)

How wasteful do you think this process is? While I could not find any statistics on stoneware, I was able to find some data on the carbon footprint of earthenware. From moulding, to firing and glazing, the footprint of producing one 10 X 10 X 10 cm earthenware piece adds up to around 1.22kg of carbon dioxide (Quintero et al, 2014). The total volume of my artwork is approximately 375 cubic centimetres (fifteen 5 X 5 X 1cm pieces). Assuming both stoneware and earthenware have similar properties, the carbon footprint of Crack 2.0 would be 0.458kg!

If you’re wondering what the 2.0 in the artwork title refers to, here’s where it comes into play. Ten of the original pieces in this series were remade from scratch due to a change in artistic direction, so an extra 0.305kg of carbon dioxide should be included!

Although there are limitations to my estimates (for example, how different the carbon footprint for stoneware may be in comparison to earthenware), what the calculations do show is that even producing the smallest ceramic works can have a large impact on the environment. As wasteful as pottery and ceramics may be, there are still ways we can reduce our environmental impact. Some things we can do include sealing unused clay properly so that it does not dry out, recycling unwanted clay works that are in their wet or greenware (unfired) stage, firing multiple clay works in batches to maximise the kiln’s use and pouring excess glaze back into the container to reduce wastage. With these in mind, let’s continue to create art sustainably and I hope this has opened your eyes to another unique art form!

References

Violatti, C. (2014). Pottery in Antiquity. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/pottery/.

Savage, G. (2020). Pottery. Encyclopedia Brittanica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/pottery.

Quintero, P. et al. (2014). The Carbon Footprint of Ceramic Products. Assessment of Carbon Footprint in Different Industrial Sectors, 1, 113-150. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-4560-41-2_5#:~:text=The%20carbon%20footprint%20of%20the,of%20the%20total%20carbon%20footprint.

Now that we have covered the impacts of art on environmental awareness, let’s delve into materials and the art-making process! I’ve done quite a few paintings myself and out of the three mediums I’ve used (acrylic paint, watercolour and oil paint), acrylic paint is my favourite. It dries within minutes and colours can be layered over easily. Such features make it a forgiving medium to use, hence it’s my go-to for painting. Is using acrylic paint sustainable in the long run? Let’s unpack this a little further!

My acrylic paints

Acrylic paints are produced by binding powdered colour pigments to an acrylic polymer emulsion (Liquitex, n.d.). Depending on the brand of paint, you may smell an odour as it dries. Wonder why the paint is able to produce this smell? Parts of the emulsion base evaporate during the drying process, releasing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like naphthalene, ethylbenzene and styrene (just to name a few). As Dr Coleman mentioned in a lecture, VOCs can contribute to the problem of air pollution and inhaling these substances could lead to an increased risk of “hepatic or nervous damage as well as carcinogenic effects” (Bauer, Buettner, 2018). In response to this, some paint companies have switched to water-based solvents to minimise their release. While it sounds like good news, the Bauer and Buettner paper notes that trace amounts of organic solvents are still present in some acrylic paints and “exposure to VOCs cannot be fully excluded”.

Are VOCs the only environmental concern associated with acrylic paint? Sadly, no. The disposal of acrylic paints could lead to water pollution as well. Some acrylic paints were revealed to contain additives like dimethylformamide stabilisers and dimethylphthalate plasticizers (Izzo et al., 2015), which have toxic properties (NCBI, n.d., Kovacic, 2010). Many artists wash their brushes and flush the leftover paint water into the sink, unaware that they might also be pouring chemicals into the drainage system. If not treated adequately, such chemicals could eventually end up entering other water bodies in the ecosystem, affecting water quality.

Learning about the components of paint shocked me greatly, so I did a quick check on the acrylic paints I have. Fortunately, the student-grade paints I use are generally solvent-free, but not all paints are equally safe. When purchasing paints, some artists only think of the colours they might need at the moment and what goes into them may not cross their mind. While it’s understandable that one requires the right materials to produce a great work of art, we should also start to be more conscious of what goes into our materials so that we can protect not only our own health, but the environment too.

To end on a nicer note, it’s great to know that some companies like Natural Earth Paint have started to produce eco-friendly paints and I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction. Let’s continue to work together to create art sustainably!

References

Liquitex. (n.d.). What is Acrylic Paint. Retrieved from https://www.liquitex.com/us/knowledge/what-is-acrylic-paint/.

Bauer, P., Buettner, A. (2018). Characterisation of Odorous and Potentially Harmful Substances in Artists’ Acrylic Paint. Public Health. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00350/full.

Izzo, F. C. et al. (2015). A Preliminary Study of the Composition of Commercial Oil, Acrylic and Vinyl Paints and their Behaviour after Accelerated Ageing Conditions. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274014713_A_preliminary_study_of_the_composition_of_commercial_oil_acrylic_and_vinyl_paints_and_their_behaviour_after_accelerated_ageing_conditions.

National Centre for Biotechnology Information. (n.d.). Compound summary: N,N-Dimethylformamide. Retrieved from https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/N_N-Dimethylformamide.

Kovacic, P. (2010). How dangerous are phthalate plasticizers? Integrated approach to toxicity based on metabolism, electron transfer, reactive oxygen species and cell signaling. Medical Hypotheses, 74(4), 626-628. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987709007890.