@smallditch - found trashion project 2017 (ongoing)
With trashion, I dress the imagination - MH
I am currently showing daily, seasonal collections of recycled millinery, separates and accessories found on the streets, salt marsh and beaches - with paper cuttings from self-portraits, recycle bins and charity shops - all local to where I live in Essex, UK.
My current practice centres around Smallditch. My collages, updated daily, are exhibited to a global audience on Instagram and beyond. I believe aesthetic appreciation has the power to alter perception for the benefit of the individual and society and the digital realm is an ideal method of delivery.
Nobody with an aesthetic bone in their body would drop litter on a beach.
I am valuing detritus, objects of low status and exploring their worth; their cost to the planet. Individually, life is extremely challenging, but through this lens it is possible to carry an abundance of self-sufficiency. Along with a sense of humour that makes for a very rich life.
Accordingly, I believe ‘trashion’ - be it vegetable waste couture from a compost collection, an exquisite found feather frock or the latest plastic beachwear - is an art form of today. It literally stops you in the street and puts a smile on your face. My collages are merely samples. The actual creativity is illuminating the path back to our imaginative childhood brains, to a playful place I call Smallditch. My job as an artist is to hand you the keys to a stockroom brimming with far superior garments in your head, to see them as objects of desire and to value them accordingly.
The project is evolving into gallery exhibitions, a luxury online trashion boutique and more. - follow on Instagram for news.
The best things in life are free, everything else is very expensive - Coco Chanel
