EXHIBITIONS
HOT MESS: TRASH ICONS
Solo Exhibition
MARCH-APRIL 2025
JULES EMPORIUM
GALLERY, BRIGHTON
HOT MESS: TRASH ICONS presents mixed media artworks and sculpture to explore our culture’s dysfunctional relationship with consumerism, overconsumption and “what’s trending?”
Utilising reclaimed plastic waste, discarded medical devices and salvaged scrap resin, eclectic collections of colourful junk and forgotten fragments of our lives are repurposed and reimagined into thought provoking pieces - exposing the social and economic conditioning of our consumption culture.
HOT MESS: TRASH ICONS serves to convey a powerful message: waste can and needs to be reduced, reused and repurposed wherever possible in our ever digitally dependent and materialistic consumer driven culture.
Ayanna Knight, artist and founder of Prescription Resin, is a GP by training and practices Aesthetic Medicine from her Brighton based skin & wellness clinic.
“I believe these abandoned, broken and discarded fragments of everyday life have a greater destiny ahead of them: to repurpose this ‘trash’ into someone else’s treasure. By transforming and curating these materials into uplifting, colourful works of art, I am honouring the role and purpose they have served and celebrating the joy and memories they have created. My mission is to connect individual life experiences in an alternative art form.”
“From salvaged scrap resin and loose embellishments to discarded medical devices and pre-loved toys, Prescription Resin harnesses an abundance of items saved from a lifetime languishing in landfill. These are processed into unique art, creating one of a kind resin sculptures, homewares & accessories.”
“Years of running my medical clinic led me to realise just how much waste is generated in this sector, particularly due to the essential safety measures applied in medical care, from single use products. From the packaging of pharmaceutical orders to the numerous devices required to safely deliver treatment, the accumulation of glass medication vials, plastic lids and steel canisters became vast. Concerned by the environmental impact of simply discarding these materials, I started to collate them into glass jars as curiosities in my clinic rooms - much to the interest of my patients. As the collections grew, I became inspired to explore and experiment with ways in which these attractive single use elements could be reprocessed to serve a more long lasting purpose.”
The exhibition aims to call the viewers attention to the very real economic and environmental impacts of our consumer culture and over consumption. Whilst none of us can carry the guilt and overwhelm of this alone, the mission of this body of work is to provoke thought and conversation about these issues.
Through the process of challenging herself to create art from the discarded and unusable, Ayanna has reflected on many of her own dysfunctional behaviours of excess. As well as sparking imagination, she hopes to inspire others to relish the challenge of finding joy in repurposing waste.