Cast cardboard recycled from fruit boxes, nylon threads, light
Size: Dimensions variable (the individual elements are life-sized apple shapes)
This was a site-specific work, located within two of the 14 entrances to the Grainger Market in Newcastle upon Tyne. Commissioned by newcastle City Council.
July 2004


Text taken from the artist’s proposal in 2004:

"Parallel will be an installation work in two parts and will be sited within overhead spaces in two of the entrances to Grainger Market. The work will be made from cardboard, reclaimed from fruit boxes and then cast into life-sized apple-shaped forms. These will be suspended from transparent threads in each of the overhead spaces to form two flowing organic masses. Within one space the objects will be made from the brown outer cardboard used for fruit boxes and in the other space I will use the purple packing card found within the boxes. The work will be visible both from underneath while entering the market, and through the large metal grids at either end of the aisle.


Processes form an important part of my practice and I am interested in the way that one type of organic matter, wood, is processed to form cardboard boxes that are then used to package another type of organic matter, fruit. I have chosen to continue the changes that the material has undergone, pulping the cardboard and casting it into the shapes of pieces of fruit.


One aspect of the market is the distribution of fruit and vegetables. Our society demands a sophistication of production in which the logistical technology is as important as the food we need as individuals. Vast quantities of used packaging attest to the cultivation and consumption of organic matter. I have decided to use this packaging as the basis for my work, and to place the work within spaces in the market that are also disregarded or unnoticed.


I want to explore the hierarchies that exist between materials (among other things) by drawing attention to the subtleties of both the cardboard packaging and the spaces it will be placed within- things that superficially have little visual interest. The two chaotic yet linked organic masses are my way of explaining the properties and potential beauty of everyday materials, forms, and spaces."





Photos of Parallel were taken by Claire Morgan.