This is a special post dedicated to the author of ‘Hoarder Comes Clean‘ blog.
Sandy (self-professed hoarder) is currently in the process of clearing out her cupboards and basement and will now blame me if she can’t bear to get rid of any scrabble board games that she finds – even if they are a few letters short of a full set.
And it’s all due to a recent post (here) about Matt Blackwood’s temporary art installation at Flinders St tram stop in Melbourne – in which I mentioned one of the artist’s earlier projects involving scrabble tiles.
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I am very happy to report that you can still view at least one of Matt’s Scrabblelit works even though they were only intended to have a short term existence.
This one has been in place for over six months in an alley just off Flinders Lane (on a side wall of the Adelphi Hotel):
How long you been on the streets
Bout five years
Does it get any easier
What do you call easy
Before you make any highbrow comments about the artist’s grammar, bear in mind the context and the fact that scrabble doesn’t have any punctuation tiles.
Or take a long breath and consider whether Matt may have been channelling fellow authors who shun parochial conventions such as grammar.
(A post by May Huang at ‘quiklit’ proves that it was not just James Joyce who did this – here.)
And in terms of spelling, you may have noticed in the photo that Matt’s work was missing the following letters by the time I found it last week: A, T, O, E, A.
For this, we can probably blame the weather (climate change?), cleaners, vandals, bad adhesive or simply the passing of time.
(Note: I checked Matt’s website and the ‘official’ text doesn’t have an ‘A’ in ‘Bout’.)
A kind soul has written in the missing letters with black texta, but these are already beginning to fade and are hard to read.
So, do you know someone in Melbourne who has an incomplete scrabble set and would be willing to spare a few tiles in the name of art? (Different colour tiles would probably be best so that it is clear that these tiles are not original.)
I can’t bear to break up my set – especially as I will need it for my next ‘Words’ post. (My first ‘Words’ post is here.)
I’m sure Matt would be delighted to know that someone cared enough to fill in the gaps. And I would be extra happy to know that someone actually read my request and had acted on it!
Categories: Art
Sustainability soapbox 
Good idea, to crowd-source the missing tiles. Same should apply to chess sets, I suppose!
Yep. You never know what will happen once you put it out to the universe! I’d love someone to post a photo on Facebook or Twitter showing that they had replaced the missing letters!
Can we coin a new term here? I think the world is ready for artcycling. Because ‘upcycling’ comes with baggage. I’ve never really liked art-from-junk being described as ‘upcycled’, but what are we here on this Earth for if not to create, and intrigue the senses? Mere survival can be challenging enough, but insects do that.
Incidentally, you might widen your appeal to include other sources of individual letters. Other games include Banagrams, Keyword, Upwords… or how about an old computer keyboard (or better yet, typewriter). You know, I may have to mix up some epoxy resin and join the fun…
Good point that people might come up with different types of tiles (assuming the artist would be okay with this).
Re art made from reused items, there is an interesting African artist who creates masks from plastic petrol containers. This is a link to one of his works in the Queensland Art Gallery:(http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/collection/contemporary_international_art/romuald_hazoume).
Hazoume says he hates the term recycling or green artist. He prefers to be known as an artist who works with ‘found objects’ (e.g. http://www.theartsdesk.com/features/romuald-hazoum%C3%A9s-petrol-fumed-art)
Other African artists say they ‘transform’ junk or discarded items such as liquor bottle tops (e.g. http://thinkafricapress.com/benin/art-el-anatsui-calixte-dakpogan-romuald-hazoume-ghana-junk)
Yesterday I saw a show at “MAD” — Museum of Art and Design in NYC — that had a lot of pieces made from recycled material or assembled from what would otherwise be junked. I thought I might use some for a blog post and now you’ve really got me thinking. As for the term, I like “repurposing”.
Great post on scrabble tiles (I did keep the incomplete set I found — who knows? I might still make some art)
I look forward to reading your repurposed art post then!