Artist Rebecca Lock created a number of gold objects from junk and placed them in amusement arcades in Cliftonville, which now serves as a timely reminder of the gamble we are taking with our coastline through our wasteful disregard for the fragility of the seas.
Originally posted on Wix blog, 24 September 2011, 07:14pm
Date: FRIDAY 24TH – 26TH SEPTEMBER 2011
Gold junk — win artist’s work from Margate arcade machine In association with Platform-7 Margate and the Lido project, the work of artist Rebecca Locke will come to Margate over the weekend of September 23/24/25.
A limited series of twenty-five pieces of artist Rebecca Locke’s work Gold junk can be won from the penny pusher arcade machine at Cliftonville Amusements over the weekend of September 23/24/25 and her short film, Gold Junk pt.2 will screen at the Lido over the weekend.
Cliftonville Amusements, Ethelbert Crescent Margate, Kent CT9 2DY
Part of Moonbow Margate Intervention 2011
Statement
In 2010, the artist Rebecca Locke began making Gold junk, gilding pieces of rubbish — an old banana, the sole of an old shoe — transforming them into sought-after artefacts and giving them value. Broken cuttlefish washed up on Bognor Regis beach during a storm were given new life by the artist. In June 2010, one hundred of these unique, signed pieces were placed in slot machines throughout the Bognor Pier amusement arcade. The arcade became a gallery, the machines became display cases, the objet d’art became prizes won by holiday-makers who packed the arcade during a busy weekend. This site-specific installation, Gold junk pt.1, was part of the Urban Encounters festival 2010, a partnership with Goldsmiths and Tate Britain.
As the ‘prizes’ were won and taken home in black paper bags, the work Gold junk pt.1 dispersed, so the artist created a short film and sound piece, Gold junk pt.2 (2011, 5 mins). The film represents not only Lockes’ installation but the rhythm and poetry of the seaside, its sound and music, including the artist’s composition ‘Fugue in Sea’ is central to the work. The film is screening at Margate’s iconic Lido over the weekend.
Biography
Born in the UK, Rebecca Locke spent eight years in New York City which proved formative in the development of her installation work, film, photographic, sound and performance-based artworks. She is a graduate of Goldsmiths, University of London, and has studied at the International Center of Photography and the School of Visual Arts in New York. She is a visiting fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London and co-founder of NYC Salt. Rebecca exhibits internationally and was a featured artist at the 2010 Festival de la Imagen, Manizales, Columbia, hosted by the Universidad de Caldas, where she presented the self-portrait based series Brooklyn // Bognor and Gold junk. She is co-curator of the City to Sea project, in association with Urban Encounters. The artist has started work on her latest project Ode to an unknown face (Thirty assorted photos with added strangers).
