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ARTIST'S
STATEMENT
Simon
Cocking is a community artist, currently involved with an Arts Council
project in the Smithfield area in Dublin, where local children are
creating mosaics from local materials such as cobblestones, ceramic
tiles and bottletops from pubs.He
says, "You keep hearing people say,
'I'm not an artist'. We keep saying, 'You don't need to be'."Simon
writes of his experience in Honduras: "Everytime you work
with others the
final outcome is the result of a coalition of inputs, energies and
ideas on the way things should be done. The mosaics were a great
way to
make an exchange, a link between my sponsoring organisation, City
Artsquad who kindly allowed me the time to go to Honduras, the local
community groups who now have their first ever mosaics on Utila,
and me, the artist who learnt and saw so many things from the local
people - including that my name in Utilan meant, yes man, no problem,
chill out."
(Text reproduced from an article by Simon Cocking published earlier)Photos
1 - 10 from community mosaic projects around the world are shown
below:
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Photos
1, 2 and 3: Suntower Gardens, Scoil Mochua, Clondalkin, Dublin.
1997.
Mosaic
made with kids from the school. Using bathroom and kitchen
tiles all salvaged from tileshop bins -
end of line, broken, unwanted tiles. Sculpture in left hand
corner, found piece of wood - Old window pillar,
decorated with seaweed, and nails, screws, hinges and bedsprings
all from wood
burned during the winter in our grate. Whole sculpture then
coated in PVA.
(Winner of AIB Better Ireland Awards and Irish Concrete Society
Sculptural award nominee).
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Photo
4: Sonas, Killester Housing Project, Dublin.
Mosaic
made with local Womens Aid group. Materials, again tiles and
also mirrors and coloured glass -
both leftovers sourced from local glass shop. Design a result
of collages created by the participants.
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Photos
5 and 6: Mosaics created on Utila, Honduras, 1998/99.
Initially
the mosaics were created just after Hurricane Mitch.
Flying Horses Ecotourism Mosaic made with local adults, who
then helped on second project with school kids.
Materials; broken tiles, bottle tops, seeds, broken bottles,
plates, cups and seashells.
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Photo
7: Ongwediva Teachers Resource Centre, Namibia. 1999.
Working
for APSO, Irish version of VSO on a community development
project.
Used mosaic as an example of a simple community dev project
incorporating
ideas of recycling, conservation and local celebration.
Participants: local and foreign development workers,trainee
teachers, students and children.
Materials, old broken beer (brown) and wine (green) bottles,
bottle tops,
tiles, mussel shells, stones.
The
3 animals are a chameleon, a gecko, and, at the bottom, a
pangolin
(armoured anteater)
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Photos
8, 9 and 10: Arts Council Award, Artist in the Community,
Smithfield, Dublin, 2000.
'Past'
emphasising the number of animals now extinct that used to
roam the area.
Participants 14 - 16 years old, they designed and made the
mosaic over a series of mornings.
Materials same as before and also for the first time old keys
for the rays of the sun.
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