About the project
Tony Harty is an artist based in Instow, North Devon, England. He is presently undertaking a two year part time MA course in Contempory Visual Arts at Falmouth College of Arts. The work resulting from the Fluff Project will be exhibited as part of his end of course show in September.
The Fluff project developed from a chance observation of the felt produced by my tumble dryer about a year ago. I had bought my children a new towel each, one orange the other turquoise. When washed and tumble dried the resulting fluff was spectacularly different to the grey felt we normally produced. It was some time later, after musing on the information integral to the fluff, i determined to collect our fluff on a specific day each month, starting on my birthday - 14th March 2003.
These small blankets of fluff encapsulate time; they hold echoes of our daily lives, the change in weather, season, and domestic circumstances. The felt is structured from the waste we produce throughout our lives. One launderette owner said to me, "you want to collect the fluff? its got human skin in it!!" They resonate with life, decay and death. Reflecting the beauty and the frailty of life.
There is no need for craftsmanship in the creation of these structures. Anyone can make a fluff construction (a confluffsion). They are built every day, in the home, the high street and in industrial contexts.
I am interested in the idea of re-presenting these confluffsions (the detritus of our society) back to society in both an Art context (the gallery) and in a non art environment (the launderrette).
If the confluffsions are re-presented to their makers as art, then clearly we all can be participants in art. They are both the makers and receivers of art. Art is not the product of the elite for the elite, but a product of us all for us all, a product of our common humanity.
Working outside the art context. In order to undertake this project i will nbeed to collaborate with a range of people who are not normally art makers, users or exibhitors. These will include; individual tumble drier owners, launderrette owners, hoteliers, owners of launderies and the press. The launderrette owners are key as they not only provide fluff to the collection but they have public premises for exhibitions.
Project aims and possible outcomes::
To collect, document, archive and exhibit samples of the fluff produced by a range of people in their normal use of tumble dryers, at home, in commercial launderrettes and in industrial contexts.
To exhibit the collection in a touring exhibition of launderrettes.
PLEASE HELP, BE PART OF THE PROJECT, SAVE YOUR CONFLUFFSIONS AND SEND THEM TO ME.
