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Writer's pictureSuitman

March 2018 - Week 1: D.I.Y Pancake Making on Clubs Day

There was a great deal of preparation leading up to our interactive pancake making installation. We designed this work to encourage participation.

5/3/2017 - Monday

I went to Kmart and bought items for Wednesday’s pancake making. We're catering for 100 people, with eco-friendly (bamboo) cutlery and plates. I have made an effort to buy eco-friendly, but the system is so stupid that everything is wrapped in plastic, even though the items are aimed at reducing plastic… Catch 22 is rampant within the system. I could not find larger quantities in the time remaining so that is something to keep in mind for future. Many of the items I bought were in lots of 6, and I wanted 100, so there are 17 plastic wrapped packs of 6 paper trays/plates, 17 lots of 6 cutlery sets (knife, fork and spoon), and 1 lot of 100 serviettes. That produces 35 plastic wrappings. So much for eco-friendly products. I still need to organise toppings… and people to help with organising and logistics. I should try to round some extra people as the executive are largely preoccupied with other commitments.


Eco-friendly cutlery

and trays are wrapped

in plastic.







I did have a win at the Chinese take-away though as I managed to get served in my own containers. I printed out an article that I gave her to put her at ease about the legalities. See the article below:


6/3/2018 - Tuesday

I was mostly organising things for tomorrows art installation where PSST (the art collective) will be giving away pancakes where participants design their own pancake by adding toppings according to their creative desire. Noah, Nic and Justy came by to assist with purchasing ingredients, making batter, picking up large buckets to mix and transport the batter.


Later I made a few signs to display on our tables.



Signs for the

tables to encourage

participants…


and explain that

this is art.



The bananas are finally ripening. They are only small, taste so sweet and delicious, and have a wonderful texture, unlike the horrible, floury ones available from the supermarket.





The best bananas

are homegrown.













7/3/2018 - Wednesday

What a great day! This constructed situation / art installation, making pancakes, was most successful. We had four members of the collective (Noah, Justy, Jeremy, and myself) performing our roles, providing the art objects that would soon be collaboratively completed then consumed. There was a long, constantly replenishing line of willing participants, whose never-ending interaction eventually managed to outdo our capacity to meet. We gave everything away, regular, vegan and gluten-free, until there was nothing left. The participation, conversation and creativity emerging from this work further encourages my interest in socially engaged art practice.



Participants enjoying

the wait to make their

own pancake.







Jeremy concentrates

on cooking pancakes,

while Noah and Justy

simply enjoy the

moment.






This guy managed

to beat the queue

by opting for the

vegan ones no-one

seemed to want.





8/3/2018 - Thursday

I spent much of the day cleaning everything up from yesterday. I soaked the batter buckets and utensils in the bath overnight, where I cleaned them before doing them more thoroughly in hot soapy water in the sink.


Batter buckets full of

water and preliminarily

washed utensils.







I also took the time to do some domestics and tidied up a lot of clutter that had built up over the course of the last few weeks, through organising the Treasure Hunt and pancake making. In the process of cleaning up I was annoyed by the amount of packaging using cardboard coated in plastic.

Even cardboard boxes

are getting harder to

recycle because they’re

being coated with plastic.







The waste stream is ridiculous. I overheard a lady asking when the bottle recycling facility will be emptied because it’s full, and she was told it was only done yesterday. There is too much ‘stuff’ produced for recycling facilities to cope. Any idea that takes off, such as it appears is happening with the recent changes to allow a deposit and refund system to operate in New South Wales for drink-cans and bottles, is overwhelmed by the volume of stuff that’s ‘consumed’ and waste produced. This situation was recently exacerbated by China announcing that they have stopped taking international plastic for recycling. It may be that, rising living standards in China brings additional waste, so they probably have enough of their own plastics to contend with.


9/3/2018 - Friday

I spent most of the day doing exegetical writing about the constructed situation, Pancake Making (2018)


10/3/2018 - Saturday

I did some gardening in the morning, I did journal /blog, image optimisation etc after lunch, and later, I did some more exegetical writing, about the constructed situation, Treasure Hunt Derive (2018)


11/3/2018 - Sunday

I went and had the collaborative work I did with Chub printed at A3 size and framed it.


3 of Chub’s 4x4 foot

canvases combined

into a digital print.






While in the vicinity getting printing done, I took my accumulated soft plastics to Coles at Fairy Meadow as the Wollongong one seems to have been removed.



A plastic shopping

bag with soft plastics

for recycling.












I went to Project Gallery with the two digital prints I am putting into the members exhibition this week. I will go again tomorrow to help with the install.


I did the weekly blog update on the website.

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