PRSC’s regular People’s Art Club have installed a billboard sized collage of work on Adblock Bristol’s Burg Arts Community Billboard.
The regular activities of our weekly People’s Art Club (PAC) produce a huge amount of art, and as this started accumulating at PRSC we decided that it should be put to good use – we’d hate to throw away piles of colourful, expressive work, just because it doesn’t have a home to go to.
Adblock Bristol’s Burg Arts project seemed the perfect opportunity to use some of the work in a way that could bring it new life and contribute to the community in a whole new way – a full billboard sized collage of PAC products!
Over several months, and about five PAC sessions, we assembled the various prints, drawings, paintings, paper-cut artworks, collages etc into six strips, 1x3m long, adding more and more layers as we went. In classic People’s Art Club style, the whole process was fairly anarchic, with glue and paper everywhere, but after a final session of adding more PVA to the front, and making sure everything was thoroughly stuck down, we were ready to install.
This was far from the usual install process – a billboard is usually a set of 12 single pieces of paper which can be pre-soaked. This time it was a set of six, lumpy rolls of collage, with multiple layers of paper, of all different thicknesses, which even incorporated pieces of plants and had stencils pasted to the surface!
Fortunately, with the expert help of the Adblock Bristol Arts Group, the install went smoothly, and the riot of colour, texture and imagery was unleashed on the un-suspecting residents of St Werburghs.
Sometimes people doubt the value of really inclusive community arts projects like the People’s Art Club, or of the kind of anti-consumer spaces that Adblock Bristol seeks to promote as an alternative to the onslaught of commercial messaging advertisers would plaster our town in, but just looking at the wonder on the faces of children passing when it was installed wipes any doubt away. Jim, one of the PAC regulars involved, stood back and simply said “it’s amazing!” And all the people passing that we spoke to loved it too.
See it for yourself – the PAC collage billboard is up for a month, keep your eyes peeled next time you’re in St Werburghs!
What is the People’s Art Club? These free weekly sessions offer up a different creative activity each week, along with a safe space to stop by for a cup of tea & a chat, maybe even a snack. Every Tuesday afternoon, 14:00 – 16:00 @ PRSC Space.