National Recycling Week
Reduce, reuse, recycle
National Recycling Week, held annually in the
second week of November, is a time to promote the importance of recycling and
sustainable living. This week-long event, initiated by Planet Ark, aims to
educate and inspire individuals, businesses and communities to reduce waste and
recycle more effectively.
Plant Ark activities include educational workshops, community clean-up events, and recycling drives. It's an opportunity to learn about the environmental benefits of recycling, discover new ways to reduce waste, and commit to more sustainable practices. National Recycling Week encourages everyone to take action and make a positive impact on the planet.
As part of National Recycling Week at 60 King William Street and GPO Exchange, we're thrilled to be featuring some sculptural pieces by emerging Adelaide artist Tahlia Hieatt. You'll be able to see Tahlia's work around the building from Monday 11 November through until Friday 22 November.
About the Artist
Tahlia Hieatt
Tahlia Hieatt is an emerging environmental artist, born in Adelaide, South Australia. She received her Bachelor’s in Visual Art in 2022 at Adelaide Central School of Art, then furthered her studies with an honors degree in 2023. Tahlia’s art practice focuses on discussing and creating discourse on the notions surrounding plastic pollution, consumerism and issues of refuse instead of reuse. The natural environment is affected by plastics and their refusal to biodegrade and become apart of the natural cycle. Through the processes of collecting, manipulating and amalgamating plastic materials Tahlia creates vibrant sculptural installations of plants and organic forms utilizing intense, bright colors referring to warning signs, poisons and danger; associated with the pollutive qualities of plastic. Tahlia collects many different types and forms of plastics, travelling all around Adelaide and creating relationships with people, retail stores, produce markets, industrial companies and many other businesses to collect their plastic waste.
Focusing on single-use plastics and food/drink containers e.g. Tupperware; but all plastics are ultimately welcome. Tahlia likes to use plastic as the main material for her sculptures, to reinforce the reality of over-consumption and wastefulness. As all this material that was used is just a miniscule portion of what is discarded daily. Tahlia manipulates plastic into organic forms to imply the notion of this unnatural, human-made material starting to act and behave like a living thing. Some are organic-esque shapes that can be left to interpretation, while others are iterations of Native Australian plants, epiphytic plants and hardy plants. Tahlia incorporates some living plants into her installations, attaching epiphytic plants such as lichens and air plants to the organically shaped plastic. Strengthening the connection with the living environment and proposing a symbiotic relationship between plastic and plant.
Informing her practice through theorist Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter and Thing-Power theories; how things and stuff can animate, act and produce effects dramatic or subtle. To encourage a connection with these everyday plastics that we all use and discard. Inspired by a range of artists who work with plastic waste as their main medium, Tahlia incorporates aesthetic organic forms and bright colors inspired by Mandy Barker’s striking photographic installations of plastic debris. Lauren Berkowitz’s vibrant plastic and plant installations and Veronika Richterova’s manipulation of plastic bottles into magnificent plant and fungi sculptures. Tahlia’s aspirations for her art career is to display, exhibit and create exposure, expressing her passions about the overuse of plastic waste and the effects it has on the environment. To ultimately prompt an affective response, one of initial attraction and intrigue, with the subsequent realization of the immense plastic waste in the natural environment. Reinforced by organic shapes and living plants.
Follow Tahlia's work on Instagram.
