New work

 New paintings on their way.

 Feeling Down at Heel?, 

Emma Neuberg,

acrylic on paper, detail, 

one of the Equal Opportunities collection,

 (an extension of the

Making the Myths Visible series), 

2m x 1.5m, 2009.

"Extended Life" Techniques for Plastics - Publication Coming Soon

Plastic can last between 400 and 4000 years. 

How throwaway is that?

These postcards feature some of Emma Neuberg's work with "Extended Life Textile Techniques"  applied to plastics with a view to addressing aspects of the throwaway plastics mindset. 

The overlap between product and textile design offers future solutions for re-use, upcycling and imbuing plastic product with emotional motifs, essence and durability. 

Student & Graduate Work Placements Available

If you are a student looking for work experience in an art and textiles studio in central London (just north of Portobello area),  then please contact me. 

Individuals or groups of friends are welcome to assist on a variety of projects and roles. For one day, a week or regular days/blocks of time - whatever suits. My email address is on the right.

This opportunity is open to national and international students and is open to applications all year round.

Thank you.

Neon Myths II

'Insurmountable Bollocks - England'

Emma Neuberg, 

silk screen print, vinyl, gold foil, plaster on paper,

66cm x 50cm, 2008 - 9.

Vintage Plastic Samplers

Are Aaron Betskys' 'blobjects' the plastic paradigm?

Plastics take between 400 and 4000 years to biodegrade. 

La Glycine (reverse),

Emma Neuberg,

printed and stitched upcycled transparent vinyl,

42cm x 30cm, 2000-08.

Sequin Rose (reverse),

Emma Neuberg,

printed and stitched upcycled transparent vinyl,

42cm x 30cm, 2000-08.

Looking Outside I

Artist working on triptych, (silkscreen print and pastel, 66cm x 150cm), Greece, 2008.

Looking forward, looking back. Extensions of this work are underway in stitch.

'Looking Outside In',

Emma Neuberg,

silkscreen print and pastel on paper,

66cm x 50cm, 2009.

Simultaneous Shifts I

Elements of The Hinged Series, 2007 - ongoing:

'Do You Know How Hard This Is'

Emma Neuberg,

silk screen print and pastel on paper,

66cm x 50cm, 2008.

'Navigating the Boundaries'

Emma Neuberg,

silk screen print and pastel on paper,

66cm x 50cm, 2008.

Meanwhile, at 160,000 light years..

While we're rummaging around trying to sell ever-proliferating products to ever-proliferating humans via ever-proliferating electronic transmission, out there, at 160,000 light-years, physics and chemistry continue their ever-shifting motions..

NASA: "Swirls of gas and dust reside in this ethereal-looking region of star formation seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This majestic view, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, reveals a region where low-mass, infant stars and their much more massive stellar neighbors reside. A shroud of blue haze gently lingers amid the stars. Known as LH 95, this is just one of the hundreds of star-forming systems located in the Large Magellanic Cloud some 160,000 light-years distant."

Notice the old guy with the beard. (Especially when you realise how far 160,000 light years is).

Neon Myths I - Work in Progress

'Repetitive Triangles', 

Emma Neuberg, 

silkscreen print and vinyl, 

66cm x 50cm, 2008.

'Make Me Feel Good Again',

Emma Neuberg,

silkscreen print and vinyl,

66cm x 50cm, 2008.

'Pattern Repeat',

Emma Neuberg,

digital print,

66cm x 50cm, 2009.

'White Stripe, Silver Cursor, Electric Green',

Emma Neuberg,

digital print,

66cm x 50cm, 2009.

'Orange and Blue',

Emma Neuberg,

digital print,

66cm x 50cm, 2009.

Plastic Rubbish Mining

"High Price of Plastics Raises Prospect of Rubbish Mining in Dumps", The Times, 12th August 2008.

"The value of second-hand plastic has risen so rapidly that mining operations to dig it out of rubbish dumps are forecast to begin within the decade.

Waste suitable for recycling is already being dug out of landfill sites in the United States and it is thought that commodity prices are on the verge of making it a profitable option in Britain.

Rubbish dumps are regarded by the recycling industry as an untapped source of riches, with an estimated 200 million tonnes of plastic buried as landfill since the late 1980s. At today's prices of £200 a tonne the discarded plastic has a value of about £40 billion...

Peter Mills, of New Earth Solutions, a specialist in waste treatment and recovery technology, said that small-scale operations to retrieve discarded plastic from landfill were already being considered in Britain. He said: “In the States they have gone back in and have been mining for plastic.. Within the UK we have an eye on it. Within the next decade, landfill mining in a controlled or limited basis is going to be viable...”

Billboard Vertigo

So, is this sustainable?

Times Square, New York, 2007. 

Les Déboulonneurs take action, Paris, 2007.

From Straw to Gold - Upcycling and Long Life Design

Pure Poison, Dior perfume ad, 2006. 

"One woman's gold is another woman's rubbish; one woman's rubbish is another woman's gold", Emma Neuberg, 2008.

Studies on Paper II

I shouldn't really be doing this...putting unfinished works on public record. Any road, for a short while this pic is blogging itself as it grows into a larger series called The Cloaks of Deception.

Pictured:
Emma Neuberg, Cloak of Deception, silkscreen and ink on paper, 120cm x 70cm, 2008.
Photos by the artist, copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Studies on Paper I

For years now I have been exhibiting my plastics work, but all the while there has been non-plastics work.

Recently, I have been revisiting these pieces so that they can be, paradoxically, laid to rest and taken out to show.

Paper works such as this one have run alongside my plastics output and may be of interest to some for the apparent parallels.

'Obscured Vision', 

Emma Neuberg,

acrylic, gold foil, rayon flock fibre on paper, 

65cm x 42cm, 2003-8.

Photo by the artist, copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Polythene Recycled

Some sartorial experiments that collage used plastic bags on to old denim skirts for rain-proof, trickle-down effects:

Pictured:
Emma Neuberg, 'This is Not a Plastic Bag, Skirt I' and 'This is Not a Plastic Bag, Skirt II' from the series 'The Anya Hindmarch Skirts', polythene laminated on to denim, 110cm x 70cm, 2008.
Photo by the artist, copyright 2008. All rights reserved.

Plastic Debris

A moment of shelter in Darfur, March 2008:

Bags of Non-Containment

The 'Bags of Non-Containment' are plastic bags deluxe. As the tiny words, 'faux pas' on the handles suggest, however, they are fake. 

They cannot be held or carried easily; they are layered and complex on the outside - full of deflection and overlapping pattern; access to the inside is narrow and difficult and, once inside, they are deceptively soft and densely black.

'Bags of Non-Containment' (from a series of six), 

Emma Neuberg,

recycled pvc, acrylic, polyester foil, rayon flock fibre, 

50cm x 40cm, 2000.

Photos by the artist, copyright 2000. All rights reserved.

Faded Plastic

So now Burtynsky has set the agenda, it's time to bring out my own collection of rubbished plastic. 

Here are some favourite shots from over the years. 

For those who know me, you may recognise that Greece, my childhood land, has always been a place of fading forms. 

Pictured:
Emma Neuberg, Kerbside Toys, Nafplio, 2005.
Photos by the artist, copyright 2005. All rights reserved.

Manufactured Landscapes

Are you familiar with Ed Burtynsky's movie of the title name? 

If not, check out this link

www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4eLsRUbtBk&feature=related

Or, for an edited version, click on one of the frames at Burtynsky's Always Changing Video Bar...

Really it's like three documentaries in one. It resonates visually, economically, philosophically, environmentally and ethically. Above all, it is a tale of plastic production and consumption on a global scale.

Watercolour Eco Plastics or Waterproof Maps

While I'm working away on The Hinged Series - hence the long pause - I thought you may like to see some of my finished "Capes". Each piece is made from polyethylene vinyl acetate (PEVA), an environmentally favourable thermoplastic, that has been foiled and watercoloured.

For further information go to http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/about-us/press-room/2006/well-fashioned-eco-style-in-the.

Pictured:
Emma Neuberg, The Blossom Capes, PEVA, polyester foil, polyester, rayon flock fibre, water-based pigment inks, 40cm x 70cm, 2006-8.

'Death in the Universe',

Emma Neuberg,

Silkscreen print, pastel and pencil on paper,

60cm x 40cm, 2007.

Please add any comments

Photos by the artist, copyright 2007-8. All rights reserved.