Category: pigment

Video: how pig parts make the world turn.

We love the work of Dutch artist Christien Meindertsma, and have drawn on her work to explain what the ‘follow the thing’ approach is all about, and how to do it well on our Classroom Resources page. We were reminded of her work today in a seminar in the Exeter Geography series by Ray Chan called “Capitalist pigs: politics of meat production and animal diseases in China.” We’re posting her 2010 TED talk today because it’s awesome. Enjoy!

I think that, in order to take better care of what’s behind our products — so, the livestock, the crops, the plants, the non-renewable materials, but also the people that produce these products — the first step would actually be to know that they are there. 

Christian Meindertsma 2010 | TED Talk

Guest comic – Painting the way for change

Here’s yet another strange and wonderful piece of work from the Exeter Geography module behind our website. It’s Rebecca Jones’ cartoon strip in which she tries to humanise paint and its commodity relations, health, safety and ethics. It starts like a talk by a young woman, but other speakers soon appear….

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Click the image to download the rest.

Bideford Black: exhibition trailer and press release

followthethings.com has been a project partner for The Bideford Black (2nd generation) Arts Council-funded project in North Devon. There are 8 commissions, including one involving CEO Ian making things from this raw pigment with artists Joan and Neville Gabie. A film has been made to document the project and the production of its work. The trailer was released today:

The Press release describes what Neville, Joan and Ian have been doing as follows:

Prompted by Bideford Black, and using a shared sketchbook, artists Neville Gabie and Joan Gabie are holding a ‘dialogue of ideas’ with Cultural Geographer Ian Cook (University of Exeter). Together, the three explore the physicality, social and geological significance of Bideford Black, presenting films of studio drawings and artifacts discovered and created along the way.

The exhibition opens from 3rd October to 13 November, at the Burton Art Gallery & Museum, Bideford, Devon EX39 2QQ. For more details about the Bideford Black project, please see the project blog.