What material resources do you have that you can use? How could they benefit your project?
Trash or Treasure?
Often times, we assume that it costs a lot of money to find resources to run something. But you would be surprised to see how often people are able to locate material resources that can be used again. Recycling and upcycling are becoming increasingly popular around the world, but they are frequently new names for practices people have always used: making use of something that would otherwise have been wasted.
In this video, Alaa Helou talks about his project, Resign for Recyled Design, and how he thinks about seeing مهملات in a new way.
Hello, Alaa Helou from Beit Lahm. I have an educational background in social sciences and journalism and I graduated in 2004. I worked with NGOS and with the civil society for about 10 years. I worked in research, training, and coordination and I gained experience.
10 years later, I started looking for something new and I already had an interest in recycling since I was young, I had a lot of free time so I used to recycle and make things for myself and my friends. In 2013, I was getting a lot of support from my friends for this kind of work, so I began this project. The name “resign” represents: first my resignation from my previous experience, and second, the “resignation” of objects I work with. For example, this cup used to be a bottle, it resigned and became a cup, or this fork that resigned and became a bracelet. This interested me because I gave a new meaning/use to the objects. The biggest support for me after my first exhibition came from the reaction of people when they saw me make things from nothing. It was encouraging to see people enthusiasm regarding the process of recycling objects and reusing them.
Art Studio
Riham Assaf is a Palestinian theatre director, actor, and artist. She runs a space called Art Salon in Beit Sahour, out of her family’s home in the old city, where people can come and create art and see other people’s work. In this video, she discusses how she uses recycled materials in her own art projects and in the workshops she runs.
Most of what I use, the materials and resources, are cost efficient. I will use wood that I find on the side of the road, or scraps from carpenters. Colours are from the people around me. Of course I do go out and buy colouring materials. But, I try keep costs as low as I can. For us here to come up with ways to make art and express creatively without using materials that are necessarily expensive. We aren’t too focused on the “canvas” or using something expensive. For example here, (points to something) we are using a piece of cardboard. I got it and we cut it up, draw on it, and the result is a beautiful painting. And this board here (points to art behind her) is something that turned out nicely.
