The Crossover Project

This unique artwork is part of The Crossover Project collection, made from waste and surplus materials.

About the artwork
Jemima Sara’s installation ‘DON’T FLUSH IT DOWN’ raises awareness about the troubling lack of consciousness around how our waste is disposed and questions whether waste disposal has become more careless  in the last decade. Do we just 'FLUSH IT AWAY' and not think of the consequences? 'Out of sight, out of mind'. The bathroom element highlights how the waste humans generate has been detrimental to our environment and the unsustainable accumulation of ‘crap’.

Generating waste is part of our daily lives and something we all do. Have we become too comfortable with the systems in place to take our waste away? Where does that plastic water bottle go after you have finished drinking it. Down the toilet?

The paintings displayed are filled with cathartic messages and drawings, focusing on waste, everyday life and toilet spaces setting the scene for the rest of the installation. The two life-sized puppets sat on the toilet and in the bath are covered in green paint highlighting the growing issue of 'greenwashing' and our complicit inaction in preventing it. The Poo sculptures on the floor are nitty-gritty, humorous symbols of humans' day-to-day waste. Through this body of work, Jemima Sara invites the viewer to reflect and reveal the struggles of waste to ignite conversations surrounding the environment and what we call 'rubbish'.

The concept of toilets is central to Jemima Sara’s work. Toilets are an untapped space that can address issues surrounding equitable access to the arts. Using a ‘location’ that people visit in their daily life helps to dispel the myth that art is on a pedestal for a select few. Toilets and bathrooms within this society are places where we release waste, clean and toilets can be safe havens for women, for menstrual inaccessibility, nightlife spaces, or even in abusive home environments.

About the artist
Jemima Sara is a mixed media artist currently undertaking her MA in Fine Art: Drawing at The University of the Arts. Jemima Sara's distinctive drawings and paintings have been acclaimed by the public and the press and often featured in major publications including Elle, The Evening Standard, Marie Claire, amongst others. Taking inspiration from everyday conversations, women, identity, self-observation and social media, she tells stories of becoming a woman, whilst resonating with the feminist tenets of the: personal as political.

About the Crossover Project
For the first time at such a scale, The Crossover Project brings together the worlds of art, design and fashion in a bid to tackle waste within the creative industries. With 1.6m tonnes of furniture and bulky waste ending in landfill each year in the UK, the project aims to salvage waste from the design and fashion sectors and present it to an exciting roster of talented emerging artists represented by avant-garde gallery Bleur to create unique works of art using art as a force for change to raise awareness around the need for circularity of materials to tackle waste. The collection of works will be exhibited in an immersive exhibition at The Royal Exchange in London from 23rd June until 8th July. Partner brands include Diesel, Ron Dorff, Georg Jensen, Elle Decoration and Edward Bulmer and others. 

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www.bleurart.com
www.crossoverprojectofficial.com