www.artandresearch.org.uk/v1n2/carter.html
Justin Carter was born Nairobi in (1973) and lives in Glasgow. Following graduation from the MFA programme at Glasgow School of Art, Carter was selected for New Contemporaries 2000. Later that year he took up the inaugural residency at Cove Park, showing work at Tramway, Glasgow. He has exhibited work throughout the UK and abroad including a special commission for the 2004 Whitstable Biennale where he gifted free produce from his solar powered ice-cream stall along the East Kent coast. Most recently he produced a new prototype of this device for the 2005 Expo in Japan.
His most recent project Pictoral: An exhibition of artwork carried by pigeon has been part of Project Pigeon, with Alex Lockett & Ian England and exhibited at The Rea Garden in Digbeth in 2009. In 2008 Carter was commissioned for Stavangar 2008 with his performative work Pedal Power for Bybrua and exhibited in ‘2008 Projects’ at Rogaland Kunstsenter in Stavanger, Norway. Further solo-exhibitions: More than This, collaborative work shown at gallery KIT, Trondheim, Norway. 2005: Speculative Architecture, House for an Art Lover, Glasgow ; Crossovers for Aichi Expo, Toyota Municipal Museum, Toyota; Weekending. Project Space, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. His work has been commissioned for Whitstable Biennale and the Bulkhead Prize.
Since 2003 he has taught in the Department of Sculpture and Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art where he is developing crossschool projects related to sustainability, ecology and art. He has researched into possibilities for art and ecology for Gunpowder Park with a Bright Sparks fellowship. Carter has been a visiting lecturer for the project Re:do at Hildesheim University, a visiting artist atStavanger Kunstskole in Norway and an invited speaker for the Public Art – New Creative StrategiesMasters programme at Bauhaus School Weimar. His research reaches an international level with his seminars on conferences like Permanent European Conference for the Study of Rural Landscape(PECSRL) Lisbon in Portugal in 2008 on Landscapes, Identities and Development and a special session on Emerging Energies, Emerging Landscapes. He has been a speaker on Art and Ecology – Future Thinking in an Age of Climate Change at the International Human Ecology ConferenceManchester in 2009. His papers and essays have been published in several international catalogues and websites.
Pedal Power for Bybrua | Stavanger 2008
A lighting system was installed beneath Bybrua (City Road Bridge, Stavanger) in order to illuminate the dark pedestrian underpass leading from Johannes Park to Nedre Dalgate. The lights were powered by a small bank of 12v batteries, which had to be recharged daily by three different pedal powered generators – Bridgit, Jim and Pedro. For a period of ten days these pedal powered generators toured various schools, streets, gymnasiums, parks, cafes, museums and cultural centers attempting to gather and store human energy from those willing to gift it. One generator ‘Bridgit’ offered free bicycle transit across the bridge to pedestrians. At the end of each day the various batteries were harvested and re-connected to the lighting system to power the lights during hours of darkness. The aim of this project was to encourage community dialogue about alternative energy and the urban environment.
Commissioned by Rogaland kunstsenter for ‘Stavanger 2008’
Sustainable Indulgence II | Aichi, Japan Japan 2005 – Kent, 2004
Sustainable Indulgence, a solar powered ice cream stall, was originally commissioned for the Whitstable Biennale in 2004. It travelled along the East Kent coastline producing and serving freshly made produce from local organic ingredients. The magical transformation of the suns energy into ice cream on one level suggests a level of humour or irony. However, this relationship actually ensures an economic logic: when it is sunny and hot, and the demand for ice cream high, production will also be high. Inversely, when conditions are overcast and the demand for ice cream low, production will also be low. For the ‘Aichi Expo’ Sustainable Indulgence has been re-designed from lightweight materials which fit within a moderately sized packing crate. When re-assembled, the crate itself becomes the body for the ice cream stall. This concept allows the work to travel long distances as freight with the smallest possible carbon footprint.
Molendinar | Glasgow, London 2002
I was invited by curator Tomomi Iguchi to participate in a group exhibition on the theme of water, art and ecology. The show coincided with a conference hosted by the Whitechapel Gallery. I used the opportunity to research the disappearance of the Molendinar burn in Glasgow, a stream that was originally settled in medieval times. I interviewed local residents, Glasgow Humane Society, The National Geological Survey, Glasgow City Council and Scottish Water in an attempt to uncover the social, economic and environmental impact of the streams historical shift to underground culvert. The video installation included maps, photography and newspaper articles.