Get Teignmouth Buzzing
by Malcolm Curley
The Teignmouth Bee wants to get people thinking how they can help stop the alarming loss of our essential pollinators – perhaps by planting wildflowers in their gardens, making bee houses, reducing pesticides. Made of all sorts of recycled materials, from plywood and polystyrene to bin bags and wire.
Greta by Malcolm Curley
The climate activist Greta Thunberg is re-imagined as a mythological woman who runs with the wolves; possessed of natural instinct and courage, fearlessly speaking out and galvanising action to save our planet.
Sculpted with recycled mixed media steel, plastics, textiles, and waste building materials
T.R.A.I.L. RECYCLED ART IN THE LANDSCAPE 2020
PROPOSAL FOR OUTDOOR SCULPTURE
Malcolm Curley
Sculpture 1: Get Teignmouth Buzzing
The sculpture will comprise of a giant bumblebee. Plus, if TRAIL is able to organise it, children (and the young at heart) could make and attach their own little bees on a framed netting which I can make (see ‘Fixing’ below).
The core of this particular sculpture is formed of marine ply and carved polystyrene off-cuts, the body will be covered in chicken wire into which repurposed bin liners and yellow plastic tablecloths will knotted. The wings and legs will be formed with wire and electric cable.
Currently a work in progress, here is what it looks like right now:
Fixing: The sculpture will be securely fixed by a post spiked into the ground, the post
strapped to the trunk of a tree. At the top will be a spring onto which the bee is attached, allowing it to hover in the wind. A triangular framework from the tree to the ground, with chicken wire in the frame, can be fabricated so that children can attach their own little bee creations.
Measurement: The bee will be approximately a metre in length, with a total wingspan of 150cm.
The triangular frame for attaching additional small bees could be about two metres high with a one metre base
Inspiration: The inspiration for the work is the alarming loss of our native bees (especially bumble
bees and solitary bees), and I’d like to get people thinking what they can do to help (by attracting bees into their gardens with wildflowers, making solitary bee houses, reducing pesticides, and so on).
Sculpture 2: Greta Thunberg – Iconic Environmentalist
The sculpture portrays Greta Thunberg running free with a wolf alongside her.
Greta will be formed using a donated old mannequin torso, the legs fabricated by myself using recycled steel and a cement-type mix, plus textiles for her plaits and clothing, impregnated with my waterproofing mix. The wolf has a marine ply ‘skeleton’ and built up with polystyrene pieces, finished with a waterproofing mix.
Currently a work in progress, here is what it looks like at the moment:
Fixing: The sculptures will be securely fixed by means of stakes driven into the ground on
each side.
Measurements: Greta: 170cm (height) x112cm (width – lifted back foot to forward fingers)
Wolf: 66cm (height) x 134cm (width – tip of tail to nose)
Inspiration: The book Women Who Run With the Wolves by Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés.
In particular, this quote: “Wolves and women are relational by nature, inquiring, possessed of great endurance and strength … They are experienced in adapting to constantly changing circumstances; they are fiercely stalwart and very brave.”
Greta Thunberg is precisely such a daring, intuitive young woman, and an inspiration for everyone who cares about protecting our environment.
Contact details:
Malcolm Curley
1 Springhill Road
Totnes, TQ9 5RD
01803 868 519
mobile: 07594 687 152
email: malcolmcurley@gmail.com