The photographs above show the re-generation of Silvetown in Newham – where I live and from where all the cans for my ‘aluminium quilt’ have been collected. The derelict buildings and abandoned shelters slowly, but surely being replaced with new developments.
My aluminium can quilt project started over 18 months ago and as I approach the final degree show, I have completed my last can collection from the streets of Newham and as I foraged in the undergrowth, I began to reflect on my can collecting journey …
To begin with, I collected cans from abandoned shelters – within the bushes and hedgerows, scattered with debris and evidence of existence. People had moved out as the developers moved in. The cans were usually cider or European imports – they corroded particularly well!
During the first lockdown I was less inclined to pick up other people’s discarded cans and luckily my son helped me out by getting through plenty of craft beer and soft drinks. The cans no longer reflected a displaced community, but reflected the ‘incomers’, nice and warm in their new-build development – the stories of Newham still contained in every can, but a different story.
When I eventually braved the streets again, I found cans in the gaps between construction sites, littered with cigarette butts, where workers were having their breaks, a sign of even more development. The cans were mainly energy drinks. There were no more cans to be found in the sheltered hedgerows – these were not replenished, the people who once found protection here, had been forced to move on as re-development took hold.
The cans I collected between the DLR station at Pontoon Dock and my building development, reflected a socio economic change in the community – they were cans of ready mixed cocktails and gin and tonic and higher quality lager such as Peroni. Unfortunately, socio economics have no bearing on people’s propensity to litter! On this note, I must say, that whilst I have had many strange looks rummaging around in the hedgerows with my marigolds and plastic bags, I do feel that, because of my work, there is far less litter around my local community – I am now beginning to struggle to find an abundance of cans locally.
When I started this project I never imagined that I would track the changing geodemographics of the area, or indeed that it would reflect a national pandemic. Time and place is an important aspect of the work and I can honestly say, it is the relationship I have had with the materials that has informed the final outcome – a relationship that has developed over time.