Acrylic on recycled tin cooking oil can

31cm by 40cm by 36cm

This is the third of the can series Alex has made for his proposed residency in Namche Bazaar, Nepal. Alex was given the brief to make art from waste which accumulates on Mount Everest. The project in collaboration with Sagarmartha next will be up-cycling rubbish to create sculptures of the surrounding himalayan mountains. Alex selects from the waste, a can that has features resembling part of a mountain or glacier. He then goes on to shape them more with hammers and finally builds up layers of paint to resemble the unique forms of the landscape such as glaciers and crevasses. The work comments on the fragile nature of the most sublime region of our planet, therefore the work responds to the need for conservation and pollution reduction. By taking the very waste that would other wise be burnt or buried on these mountains and transforming it into something of worth it helps to preserve these very places for future generations. These series of works serve to remind us of the glacial places that are seriously at risk due to human impact, pollution, rubbish and unsustainable consumption are a direct threat to the very landscape thats most cherished in our world. These mountains made out of rubbish remind us of what is at stake and serve to inspire new relationships with what we regard as useless waste.

K2, at 8,611 metres (28,251 ft) above Sea level, is the second highest mountain on earth, after Mount Everest (at 8,849 metres (29,032 ft)). It lies in the Karakoram Range, in part in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in part in a China-administered territory of the Kashmir region.