Supported by the Drawing & Painting Program and the Office of Diversity, Equity & Sustainability Initiatives | Victoria Ho, Julius Poncelet Manapul & Ilene Sova.

Artworks by: Athena Nemeth, Ethan Platt, Joan Nuguid, Usman Abdullah, Sedi Aledavood, Anne Wallace, Yingchao Chen, Kaile Ward, Ryan Carney, Aleena Derohanian, Ysobel Balatbat, Bianca Jones, Blair Immink, Bhavana Jalali, Kimia Ghofrani, Adam Gourlay, Maryam Zaraimajin, Jennie Lau, Deanna Hood, Shiva Kheirabadi, Dilshad Kanji, Adrian Baduria, Julia Robson-Macgregor, Dalia El Toark, Ash Randall-colalillo, Oliver Ashton, Nasim Salehi.

This online exhibition features the upcycled artworks produced by OCAD U students and alumni of all disciplines. This event is organised by OCAD U Drawing & Painting Program and the Office of the Diversity, Equity & Sustainability Initiatives to provide an opportunity to emerging artists and designers from diverse practices to showcase their creative possibilities including interdisciplinary 2d and 3d works that stem from reclaimed and found materials. This initiative is an attempt to help generate excitement and continue the conversation about sustainability in our creative practice. -Usman Abdullah

FOREWORD

With the knowledge of our planetary fragility looming overhead, planning for the generations ahead necessitates a dragging of the past, present and future into closer proximity. This exhibition of work featuring found and upcycled materials reflects on how value and care is (or is not) ascribed to materials. Addressing themes of place, time, family, and memory in a collective critique of mass consumption and disposability, this exhibition acknowledges that which is irreplaceable and identifies a pressing need to confront our interdependency - including during a pandemic that propels supply chain disruption and global uncertainty to resource access. Twenty-seven OCAD U students across disciplines squeeze past and present together and find ways to stretch time through materials repurposing as we hurtle together towards uncertain climates. You are invited to enter Sustainable Interventions to examine material representations of identity, contradiction, and love for a livable future. -Victoria Ho

Victoria Ho, OCAD U Sustainability Coordinator, Office of Diversity, Equity & Sustainability Initiatives

Athena Nemeth

Athena Nemeth is an artist currently based in Montreal completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at OCAD University which she will finish in 2021. She likes to work with degradable and old material. The way she works with it is by making textile artwork on top of these artworks. She gets her inspiration from her Hungarian heritage by sewing and embroidering what she has been doing since she was a child reflecting her connection to her nationality. What she hopes to do is dissect the object and turn it into a whole different complete object. Turning this rejected piece of item people would often disregard into a work of fabric art that wouldn’t be considered that before sewing upon it. The type of artist she aims herself to be is like any type of grandmother that sews and knits. In this piece she wanted to showcase the fragility of book paper reading and by embroidering the words she turned this dusty book into a valuable book that you won’t be able to touch and feel on the internet.

"Embroidered book"

Ethan Platt

Cartier Chastity uses repurposed stainless steel as a support to depict the luxury brand's Love Bracelet in oil paint. The work compares price points of luxury fashion houses to the material value of their designs and questions oil painting's history as a luxurious and authoritative medium for artists. By using recycled materials, Chastity notes the luxury market's dismissal of recycling and environmental efforts in favor of opulence. Using oil paint on found metal elevates the low connotations of recycling in lux-fashion to the high esteem and opulence of oil paintings and precious accessories. Furthermore, Cartier Chastity relates the love bracelet's permanent nature in terms of its screw in fastener, to chastity and marriage for money. The notion of being locked in a marriage for money becomes a metaphor for the lux brand's historic marriage to opulence over environmentalist and humanitarian efforts.

Joan Nuguid

‘Forget me not’ is the third and final piece from a series of work I started for my landscape class last march. My professor, Laura Millard encouraged me to finish it despite the lack of equipment to properly present it. The structure was made from a shoebox I refused to throw away while the contents inside were from the modelling clay I used for a stop motion animation, which was correspondingly, the second part of the series. Apart from the house structure, it was important for me to reuse the modelling clay for the final piece because it created another layer of meaning for my project which revolved around childhood memories and nostalgia. The ultimate goal of the series is to show how we share our memories with other people, this act, I think helps to keep the memories alive and by reusing the materials I had used for the second part of the series I am preserving the memory while also rebuilding from it.

Click here to see more of Joan Nuguid work

Usman Abdullah

To upcycle textile materials i made a grocery bag out of scrap felt and fabric which i found in my late grandma's belongings. She used to make stuffed toys and clothing for her grandkids. Each piece of fabric has a sense of belonging to me. This is not just an ordinary bag; it recalls the memories of my late grandma and her passion to make things for her grandkids. She is not here anymore but her memories are embedded in the colorful pieces of fabric.

Sedi Aledavood

The connection of three photos comes from iconography or human symbols. The tree is a symbol of the house and father and the house is a symbol of Mother's love! Hands have merged with tree demonstrating the association and sense of belonging to the home. By transformation of the forms in nature, human dissolving among the leaves, branches and trunks of trees, I wanted to remind the unity and connection in the universe; that we are spinning around a circle, and the center of gravity does not Let us disperse. This is a placeless space. Timeless imagination. The show is a universal exemplary human story. Double exposed image processing seemed to be very appropriate for the iterative digital metamorphosis of the results.

Anne Wallace

This assignment was to create a site specific installation. My response was to call out a perceptual gap between the highrise condominiums at Humber Bay, and the adjoining naturalized shoreline of Lake Ontario. Inspired by the organized messiness of a bird’s nest, the intention was to bring natural elements into a designed space, thereby disrupting the reflective and sterile lobby spaces of the condo tower. The project easily leant itself to using repurposed materials to create a light-absorbing soft sculpture of felted dog hair, dye rags, old tshirts and salvaged fabrics. Embroidery stitched with hand-me-down floss provided a means to show the artist’s hand.. The only new materials in the piece are the invisible wire it hangs from, and the metal wire frame inside; the body is entirely repurposed or upcycled and the felt is compostable, achieving sustainability in the materials while also supporting the concept of bringing nature indoors

Yingchao Chen

I plan to make a body of work questions the relationship between mass production and the sole governing political party - Chinese Communist Party.

The last series is a display of a group of objects that have been painted by blue acrylic paint. Each object is weighted before and after the application of acrylic paint. Objects are accompanied by a catalog which contains their original price tag, short description and the weights. These objects are bought at Value Village from different locations. Second- hand objects automatically carry memories of previous owners, therefore, each item is unique in terms of its experience and they are the materialization of “individuality”. The blue acrylic color is chosen specifically to match the color of Chinese school uniform which is surprisingly similar to the color of ozonator factory’s floor. Factories use this bright blue color as a safety measure to identify different areas of the factories, so that workers can see the floors easily when carrying oversize items. The undertone of this blue color is “cautious”.

Kaile Ward

My textile-based work involves a close exploration of nature in my hometown. I explore themes of comfort, healing, meditation and the implications of materials and abstraction. My studio turns into a laboratory were I examine various wild plants, leaves, and water, under a microscope. By interpreting microscope photographs in soft sculpture and embedding meaning into all my materials, I aim to reconnect and rebuild my relationship with my home. In an effort to maintain a more sustainable practice I produce and colour all my textiles with natural dyes made from various wild plants, berries, barks, and water sourced around my home. I also use the process of eco printing which is a technique where plants, leaves, and flowers leave their colour and marks on fabric. Untitled II was made from recycled cotton sheets and eco printed with leaves. The form was based on a microscope image of a maple leaf cell.

Click here to see more of Kaile Ward work

Ryan Carney

As problems associated with waste accumulation continue to grow and younger generations find it harder to purchase their own homes making furniture less permanent, I've devised a joinery method which allows for an easily repairable and recyclable product lifecycle to contribute to the repurposing of millions of pounds of plastic on earth utilizing discarded plastic bottles to assemble furniture as an alternative to traditional hardware and or adhesives.

Aleena Derohanian

Portrait Bib is an oversized necklace whose process of creation was designed to challenge the linear economy of materials used to make a work of art. Assembled from an old acrylic self portrait done in 2012, this piece examines whether a finished piece could be reinterpreted to become the raw material for something new. The transformation between what the flat canvas once was, and the ruffled and voluminous form of this necklace speaks to the evolution of my craft over the years- from painter, to jeweller. Just as we reinvent ourselves and our art overtime, sustainability calls for us to reassess the role of old pieces in our current practice- and whether or not this overlooked repository could be a gold mine for inspiration and sustainable creation.

Ysobel Balatbat

A prominent theme across my work is the concept of fish in places they don’t belong. Because of my unique fear of fish, this theme implicitly follows the idea that I am constantly surrounded by fear. In this installation, the fish are a metaphor for fearful thoughts that can be accessed in the shower - as one might call, “shower thoughts.”

When Toronto went into lockdown for Covid-19, my new art projects were limited to the materials I already had at home and could only be physically displayed at home as well. I saw this as an opportunity to reuse the materials I have saved from previous art projects and other found objects. These include scrap canvas sheets for the fish cutouts; flower petals, clear plastic gems, yarn, curling ribbon and rhinestones for the dangling elements; and cutouts from a patterned tissue box for the blue tiles. Upon disassembling the installation, I have again, saved these materials for use in future projects. I installed this piece in my shower, wanting that physical space to be part of the artwork itself. Finally, I paired this installation with Samashi’s “Reflection” in order to capture the tranquil vibe of lo-fi music.

Bianca Jones

This bag is made from a vinyl music poster I salvaged when volunteering at the 2018 Montreal Folk Alliance Music Festival. Including the seatbelt strap, the vinyl I used in creating this bag is part of the idea that most any material can be upcycled to create a new product that can once again be useful. The fun and colourful designs of the poster allow for a very fashionable bag, proving that reusing unwanted or no longer useful materials can lead to interesting and beautiful pieces of artwork and items. Instead of letting the large poster go to waste, I wanted to use the vinyl as fabric and sew it into a functional and stylish cross-body bag. With this bag, I want to spread awareness that upcycling can be easy and practical, and that it is an affordable way to create new objects or artwork that are valued by many.

Blair Immink

Reach for the Stars came to me as a visual idea during a tarot reading, in a time where I needed to keep my eye on the prize! This collage is a manifestation, a reminder and an affirmation. Using found material gives the piece so much more energy and really speaks to the belief I have for myself; “you always have what you need.” Using sustainability as a catalyst for making really makes your creative side come out, how you use the materials is so important, and how the materials asked to be used is equally just as important. The background and hands for this collage came from an old book I found, the bracelets are from paper an old roommate left behind and the stars are from an invitation to apply to a grad program. I think the past lives of my material influence the work as well, all of the paths I’ve wondered and all of the paths I could’ve wandered brought me to this very moment. That's powerful. Thank the things around, they can assist you.

Click here to see more of Blair Immink work

Bhavana Jalali

This collection includes a series of items created out of a single old pair of denim jeans. The items include a denim handbag, denim pouch and a wristwatch watch with a denim strap. As a strong supporter of slow fashion, I adore DIY techniques and ideas that involve the re-use of pre-existing items that one may own. I believe that the term ‘waste-fabric’ is only a state of mind and not a reality as every little piece of fabric can be found a use for. While performing research about various processes that comprise the textile industry, I understood the process of creating denim and the denim industry to be one of the most harmful to our environment. This inspired me to re-create items out of a pair of jeans in my drawer that I had long outgrown. I look forward to working on more such projects that help create meaningful products out of old ones and impart a new life to them, instead of discarding them in the form of waste.

Kimia Ghofrani

Potato Stamps: in a Time of Sparsity examines how one must carry on in times of hardship: inspired by reflections of shared global trauma, such as the current Covid-19 pandemic. Following the effects of the first World War, many countries faced textile shortages amongst other restrictions. Makers were forced to look for more sustainable clothing patterns and sources of fabric. Manufacturers even started issuing their bulk goods in elaborately patterned cotton sacks encouraging their second life as clothing.

Now, during this period of global affliction, we revert to natural, sustainable, and affordable options – recognizable in the mass resurgence of DIY and craft culture. During the lockdown, my art practice has become much more self-sustainable due to a lack of access to facilities. A year into the pandemic and is one of the world's biggest cotton producers, Indian farmers strike to protect the agriculture sector and their livelihoods from large private companies.

It is time to rethink our unsustainable relationship with cotton once more. Made from upcycled cotton, utilizing an ancient yet familiar relief printing technique, the Potato Stamp tote is handmade using the humble potato!

Adam Gourlay

My piece “Achoo” portrays a feeling of being disconnected, disembodied, and discombobulated, while realizing we are all intertwined. It focuses on that “outside of yourself” feeling in the moment of a sneeze. My choice of materials addresses the idea of Sustainability. I upcycled previously used paint that I found half dry on some of my palettes. I painted on a piece of an old Ikea cabinet because I did not want to simply throw it out. In my practice, I try to make use of old things that I have lying around and avoid buying something new to paint on. I find, with reusing materials, I can get unique textures, colours, and vibes that I otherwise would not have thought of. One of my favourite places at OCADU is the Reuse Depot, I love finding something useful there and I always try to leave something behind.

Maryam Zaraimajin

I like to make art out of found material, as I enjoy changing them to a new form and shape. I would like their original material and purpose to still be recognizable but also for them to have a new story to tell. In the piece ‘Tracing my shadow’, I used a plasma cutter to cut out a very well-known Persian pattern onto an old computer case I found on street. The piece would cast overlayed shadows on the wall. The purpose was to make the viewer to pause, look and ponder.

In another piece ‘Strong but Fragile’, I was inspired by a movement where people collected pop can tabs for donation in order to be used in making wheelchairs. I glued them together to make a portrait showing the two sides of every human, strength and vulnerability.

Jennie Lau

Bamboo chopsticks are closely associated with daily life around the globe. They are a very popular dining tool, convenient and disposable. We think they are eco-friendly and recyclable, but they are not – they go to the landfill and make a significant impact on our environment. Neo-Bamboo Forest is a digital artwork that cycles disposable bamboo chopsticks through their original landscape of a fast-growing forest to the newly manmade landscape of the current era – a landfill. My intent with this piece is to alert people of the consequences for our environment whenever we dispose of a single pair. Can we better utilize chopsticks, reduce their disposal rate, and change our lifestyle? The digital process of integrating bamboo chopsticks into the bamboo forest emphasizes human intervention with nature. The multi-layers of paper echo our disposal practice and constant damage to our precious land. For me, the digital drawing effect conveys one of the many vicissitudes of our ecosystem.

Deanna Hood

and I've chosen to submit a series of collages as a way to reuse and repurpose old scraps of other collages I've done. These are all collage and other media (acrylic, marker, ink), and two of these four pieces I've chosen to use are done on old packing paper. (The brown paper backdrops).

Environmentalism is extremely important not only to my body of work but also my day to day life. I'm always looking for ways to reduce my waste and sometimes creating art can initially be rather wasteful. I believe that you're absolutely capable of creating quality pieces while staying within sustainable guidelines, and instilling environmentalist morals within works is something I wish to continue to do in the future.

Shiva Kheirabadi

The method that I used for painting this piece was abstract. I started by having the finished candle and wile looking and observing it I started to paint my feelings that I felt was connected to the finished candle. The way the candle was melted it looked like a sculpture and it was too good to be thrown out so I had to give the candle another chance to shine but this time through admiring it for what it has became from burnings. By creates this painting I was able to give this candle a longer life and make it shine again.

In this work I have upcycled metallic wires by shaping them into waves and placing them on top of my abstract acrylic painting. The theme for this piece is waves and I wanted to show how each wave is unique but similar to each other. Each wave can last for about couple of seconds and the only way to freeze them is to capture them through photography,. In this work these wire were about to be thrown into garbage just like how waves suddenly disappear, but I decided to capture them by placing them on my painting.

Here I have created a design to upcycle cans to serve as an organizer for stationary items. Here the theme is to use an everyday material to fulfill an everyday need. I wanted to show a design that is simple but serves maximal. Instead of buying new materials to organize stationary I upcycled cans. Since this design is simple and the materials are from daily life it makes it possible for others to use the same design to help the environment and upcycle their recycled/ garbage materials instead of buying new materials

Dilshad Kanji

I am an emerging visual artist, with focus on bridging art, science and spirituality. My imagination moves around my understanding based on scientific research about human existence and its connection with the entire universe. Inspired by the in-depth cosmological inquiry provided by numerous Scientist, our ancestors, and Sufi sages, my current practice is dedicated to re-imagining the principles that once guided our ancestors towards an illumination of the intellect. Each intervention involves testing how various geometric forms can appear(worldly) and disappear (spiritually) in space - how the viewer must find a state of balance in order to witness the unity within an image.

In this specific piece, I am trying to show ordered and stable pattern of the heart’s input to the brain during positive emotional states, facilitates intellectual function and strengthens positive feelings and emotional stability. This means that learning to generate increased heart rhythm coherence, by sustaining positive emotions, not only benefits the entire body, but also profoundly affects how we perceive, think, feel, and perform.In order to showcase emotional and intellectual sustainability, I have used water cans as water is at the core of sustainable development and is critical for socio-economic development, healthy ecosystems and for human survival itself. Demands and competition for water are expected to increase even more as the global climate changes. It is a limited and irreplaceable resource that is fundamental to human well-being.

Adrian Baduria

The idea of Sustainability has become a key aspect in our lives especially in the products we buy. As sustainability evolves I believe a multipurpose feature is the way to go because it lengthens the products lifespan a.k.a Reusing.

The Sleeping Coat is a unisex full length body puffer coat upcycled from a sleeping bag I had since my childhood, the only material I outsourced is the thread I used to sew the garment together. The coat has a hood and is light weight but perfectly insulated for cold weather. The colour palette from the original sleeping adds a 2-tone look with neutral colours that matches any garment. The multipurpose feature is when zipped up it can convert to its original sleeping bag form. To store it you can hang it but it can also fit in its original carrying case, perfect for when winter passes and you want to put it in storage!

Julia Robson-Macgregor

"Begin Again", chicken wire, scrap paper, fallen leaves and branches, glue, 6 ft x 3 ft x 1 ft 8 seconds,

This sculpture installation is an exploration of life and death, connected to my personal understanding of loss. Death is an overwhelmingly confusing concept, but my perspective developed as I related it to a process that is greater than myself-- the fluctuation of life within nature. I wanted to embody the flowing energy within all living things and reflect the interdependence between human and non-human species. It is my goal to engage in a more reciprocal relationship with the land, thus it was crucial I did not interfere with nature and only used found organic or recycled materials, that otherwise would have been thrown out. Creating this piece involved continuous self-reflection which fostered a mindset of sustainability as I started to accept that we are all a part of this place, not merely visitors. Our existence, however brief, is meaningful, and has the capacity to make room for new life, letting the cycle begin again.

Dalia El Toark

“Hidden” Animated GIF, Embroidered, Synthetic Black Yarn on Hijab, Stretched on Embroidery Hoop

“Hidden” narrates my diasporic identity as a Muslim woman wearing the hijab. By the incorporation of Arabic text and personal hijab, the animation expresses the stereotypes that blur the aspects that define me as an individual while living in a westernized community. Through an animated GIF, I express the repetition of Arabic text by embroidering onto the hijab, covering the surface, then reversing the animation, ending with a blank surface. This piece expresses the stereotypes Muslim women in diaspora face from wearing the hijab, and the struggles viewed through the GIF, which further depicts erasure of language and culture. I chose the hijab as a material that would convey a personal meaning while reusing it in order to symbolize my identity through sustainability. Further, addressing the struggles of living in a westernized community, and the influences which diminish cultural and personal aspects that define the diasporic individual while breaking stereotypes.

Ash Randall-colalillo

As my explorational practice of the performative object continues, my focus of childhood, identity and memory has created a relationship with the objects I create or use.

In this hand stitched piece from old clothes owned by my mother and i, reflections of self doubt and experiences are reflected back at the self and viewer. The object performs in the space as a soaking and heavy representation of metaphorically and physically “airing out”/clean (dirty) laundry.

This object speaks to the domestic and emotional relationship I have with my mother and the comfort in her presence and her teachings. It's as if when she passes down her clothes to wash, from hands to water, her life experiences come through, I learn from them...hold on to them.

Yet isn't it supposed to wash away the anxiety of having to move forward, eventually without that comfort?

Where the unknown waits...where the comfort that I am used to will no longer be comfortable, I eventually will have to be prepared and accept - even if the process takes longer than expected, just as laundry does.

Oliver Ashton

Untitled (Paper on Paper) is a drawing I made by hand, using up-cycled kraft paper, that I machine sewed onto another sheet of paper. I made lines using graphite, and oil stick was used to white out the form, all while creating a buildup of texture. I ribboned the kraft paper onto itself prior to sewing so that it extends beyond the plane of the paper, creating a sculptural relief so that the physicality of the paper becomes the

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Nasim Salehi

“The whole world is an art gallery when you are mindful. There are beautiful things everywhere and they are free.” Charles Tart

This artwork was created at the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic. Like many others, I faced with many questions and uncertainty about future. To overcome the hopelessness and anxiety due to the Pandemic, I developed a habit of spending more time in nature. Being alone in nature gave me the opportunity to listen to my inner voice. Listening to nature’s music, touching rocks, or sitting beside grass has been a wonderful experience that helped me to relax my mind, body, and soul during this unprecedent time. It was amazing how generous is the nature towards humans. A question that has been bothering me was that despite all this generosity from nature, humans are considered a big threat to destroy it.

This artwork represents my self-portrait, full of hope and uncertainty in the Coronavirus pandemic time. All the pieces that are used in this work, were found during my walks in nature.

Curators Note: Everyday millions of tons of post-consumer waste ends up in landfills which has serious environmental impacts. Huge volume of waste in landfills is directly linked to single use approach of products and excessive industrial production. We are in the middle of a global waste crisis which has seriously impacted our planet. Twenty seven emerging artists & designers are participating in this group show by showcasing their upcycled artworks to promote sustainability in creative practices and to foster ReUse culture in our everyday life to preserve our environment. -Usman Abdullah