ART BIO

ELIZABETH RUSSELL-ARNOT

A successful and practicing painter and sculptor, born and bred in Tasmania. Currently living in Longford, Tasmania.

I have always been aware of the world/environment in which I live and my artistic work became the voice which I used to express my love for the environment and everything in it. Birds, animals, insects, plants and yes, even mankind.

As a youngster I was quite introverted and shy, but that possibly enabled me to focus on what interested me the most, which were the arts and their ability to be a voice for protection and change. In the 1980’s as a young mum, I gained a pilot’s licence which enabled me to travel to distant and remote places to study more rarely seen species. A highlight was flying myself into Melaleuca in the South West of Tasmania to study and paint the very endangered Orange Bellied Parrot. These paintings of rare and endemic Tasmanian bird species became very popular, resulting in sets of limited edition prints being produced and sold out in Tasmania, Mainland Australia and even overseas. People still ask me to paint more natural history subjects and I do, when I have time.

As time passed, I became increasingly concerned about the health of our planet and its wild spaces. I organised a series of expeditions to visit the Hunter group of islands in the Bass Straight to investigate the health of the environment and surrounds.  These were sponsored by Dick Smith, the millionaire adventurer and wild-life advocate. Initially, I was contacted by Dick Smith, making enquiries as to whether I would be interested in illustrating covers for the Australian Geographic magazine, but it would have required my moving to Sydney so I had to turn down the offer.

During our meeting at his office, we spoke about my interest in trying to protect our waters and islands from ever increasing pollution. This must have piqued his interest, as not long after I arrived home, a letter with a cheque to cover expedition expenses arrived in the mail.

The Hunter Group of islands are in a location included in Bass Strait, just north of Cape Grim on Tasmania’s far North West  Coast where the cleanest air in the world is recorded at the world air pollution monitoring station. In the late 1980’s, a visit to Trefoil Island on one of these expeditions with such high expectations of cleanliness and environmental purity revealed a truth to me which was to completely change my creative direction. A tiny storm petrel standing on a rocky beach, not moving and still didn’t move when approached. As I approached, I saw a plastic bag coming from its mouth. When I gently picked it up, and in trying to remove the plastic, pulled out its entire gut I was mortified and reduced to tears – and still am just talking about it 40 years later. What have we done? I asked myself. Shame, horror and guilt filled every fibre of my being at that moment. Life would never be the same, nor taken as lightly again. What can I do? How can we do something to halt this tragedy we have inflicted on our wild creatures?

My reputation as a talented (and popular) wild life and botanical artist was already well established by this time. I had been awarded a Churchill Fellowship in the early 1980’s to research the history and development of Natural History art, travelling to Britain, Europe and the United States and the resulting publication is still being used as a text book today.

But that little Storm Petrel sent my artistic career in a different direction, yet still encompassing the overarching reason for all that I had previously done, which was to share my love of the environment and all living creatures, featuring the ones in my own environment as a priority. This is what my latest body of work is all about. Repurposing, recycling and reusing as much of our electrical and modern technological and plastic waste as we possibly can and turning it into beautiful, yet meaningful works of art. Works that carry narrative of the effect of human behaviour on the condition of our planet and its surrounding space. I became a sculptor in the Anthropocene Arts.

I had enrolled in a Masters of Contemporary Art degree at the University of Tasmania and a summer school option called Sculpture from the Skip was on offer. This sounded like something I would love so off I went on a 2 week journey that changed my entire artistic career. This course encouraged the participants to use previously discarded materials to create art that carried narrative and meaning. Here was mountains of electrical, electronic, metal and plastic waste, ALL destined for landfill.

This activity then encouraged me to research the health and safety aspects of the materials that I had chosen for use in a sculpture, revealing information in peer reviewed papers that told of its effect on the environment and all that live in it, including myself. The work that evolved as a result then linked to that initial interaction with the little Storm Petrel and the narrative in the work became even more important.

8 years later, this work continues and with time has become more and more important. Using repurposed materials for art carries with it a devaluing element, which is the language that we use to describe it, which then engenders disrespect and disregard. My work also aims to alter the terminology so that the value of the materials to art and society is understood and appreciated.

Anthropocene Art is a term that has been embraced world-wide for Artists who use their skills and talents to create awareness of how human behaviour is effecting our planet. I proudly work in this genre.

Currently I am busy creating a body of work using electronic electrical and plastic waste to create an installation hundreds of swarming bugs, which are invading in every aspect of our daily lives, just as electronic items have taken over so many of our daily activities. With this comes the dangers of pollution, radiation, toxic materials and a huge change in human behaviour. The BUGS are not meant to represent insects, although working on them does remind me of the time that I wrote and illustrated a book on Endemic Tasmanian Insects.

So far, I have made 276 of these electronic creatures from discarded televisions, computers and other repurposed materials, with at least double that amount yet to be made. This installation is multi-disciplinary, with a Sound artist and Lighting artist also participating.

Instead of a studio full of paint and paper and canvasses, etc., I now have a studio divided into 3. An office for writing, a painting centre and a sculpture corner. A chair on wheels enables me to move easily between stations as needs must.

Against the walls are boxes and boxes of materials, harvested from circuit boards, computers, televisions and electrical appliances galore as well as other random donated or sourced items, such as thousands of eye glass lens donated by OPSM and kept from landfill through reuse in Art.

I am driven by purpose and creativity as it is a voice which cannot be silenced. My work is a force that propels me forward, headlong into looking for a result that can help to make a difference.

Life has presented me some serious challenges, including serious illness in recent years but I continue to look forward, my artistic drive and purpose sustains me.

We have become a throwaway society. By using my talent to re purpose thrown away items, I hope to inspire other people to see what can be done. To teach what beauty can be drawn from something considered to have no value, thus helping to stem the tide of ever increasing ambivalence and mountains of waste and toxic pollution as a result.

As the world and technology changes, so my work changes. Some materials become no longer available and new materials emerge, offering different opportunities for expression.

Scholars and Artists have always been at the forefront of progress for humanity. My desire is that my work can be a catalyst for others to see what they can do with repurposed materials and to contribute to making this planet of ours a safer and more beautiful place.