Manifesto for Making Sustainable Artwork

2020

Since its original release, this Manifesto has been used in various workshops and has become a valuable teaching aid and reminder for artists and makers. Jo Lathwood continues to use this checklist regularly, especially when creating new works or developing commissions.

The three dots at the end of the Manifesto are intentionally left open, allowing users to add their own thoughts, ideas, and statements.

The Manifesto was first launched at a symposium hosted in partnership with Eastside Projects on October 24, 2020. Together with Ellen Wilkinson, Jo Lathwood produced copies of the Manifesto by screen-printing the text with handmade Oak Gall Ink. During an open online conversation, contributors offered suggestions that were incorporated into the printed version of the Manifesto.

- Design work to allow for re-use.

- Respect all resources required for the production of your work: materials, energy, labour

- Acknowledge that these ways of thinking are *not new* Indigenous knowledge is where we should start.

- Data and online environments are linked to physical server space. Take care to manage the data you horde

- Collaborate with sustainable companies for the fabrication of new work

- Use as little water as possible

- Listen to your body; Ensure moments of rest; And Breathe

- Considering Collaborators: Authorship and Consent

- Seek new platforms and sites for presenting/ connecting/ conversation

- Consider how artworks travel to their destination from where they were made

- Re-adapt and re-arrange your work

-Consider social sustainability - are people's rights being upheld? Are wages fair?

-Making work as a kind of meditation, to look after yourself, helping you to heal and be more in touch with ourselves and the planet

-Call on art material producers/ companies to make the material ecological and ethical.

With thanks to contributors, Sarah Strachan, Yas Lime, Rupi Dhillon, Sarah Taylor Silverwood, Veronique Chance, Carol Laidler, Fran Wilde, Mary Trapp, Jennifer Dudley, Joana Cifre Cerda, Brenda Hickin.

A PDF version of the Manifesto is available for download here.

This Manifesto was developed as part of a larger essay titled “Material as Labour. Labour as Value,” published by Yellowfields for the edition entitled “Production Production.”

To learn more about this project, visit https://jolathwood.co.uk/artworks/material-as-labour-labour-as-value/ .

Photography - Conway and Young & Georgia Hall

Commissioner - Yellowfields

Launch - East Side Projects