The Womble Collective

The Womble Collective is an art platform, directed towards planetary consciousness and aspires to support the cultivation of environmental awareness.

We reflect on how the environment is changing and how, as artists, we confront technological syntaxes that are changing geo-social and ecological structures resulting, for example, in pandemics and loss of biodiversity. In developing the project we have used new tools for collectivity in art, which facilitate collaboration, glocal sustainability and new ways of making art. 

As a point of departure we use the Wombles: furry anthropomorphic creatures who meet their needs by re-using what humans discard.  We need to emulate how they reduce and reuse, while we also need to go beyond their local thinking in order to have a global impact. 

Promoting international connection and exchange about how we deal with rubbish, as artists we rethink and constantly research and collect different perspectives from opposite ends of the world to create art.

We call upon our audience to connect with their inner Womble to reuse and recycle.

Some members of the collective are based in Colombia and Spain, providing contrast between how rubbish is dealt with in New Zealand and elsewhere, and shining a light on "blind spots".

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Keep Nature Clean 

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Medium : Acrylic, Oil and Dry paint on canvas 

Size : 137 cm x 101 cm   

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This painting originates from a photograph found in the media by another Womble artist called Juan Toro. The image was originally of a Womble called Orinoco and in it ‘he’ is saying “KEEP NATURE CLEAN”.This painting is a collage of that image which I made with the texture and volume that Orinoco Womble deserves. It is made from bits of waste paint that I collected from my old pallets for around seven years of painting with oil. Every scrap and scrape from my works was collected together in a metal tin.  The process uses these precious pieces of discarded oil to produce an amalgam which was then attached to the canvas to produce a three dimensional image.  This creative process is a rejection of the consumerist ethic. The medium for the artwork is important as its context.  Every time an artist changes perceptions the medium changes too. Today, however, across all areas of production it is increasingly urgent to consider the environmental impact of materials.  Artists must take the lifecycle of their materials into account, making their art with an eye towards sustainability and protecting the natural world. Whilst this is not a self-portrait, Orinoco Womble has a special personality that fits with my principles and the way I am as an artist.  We both collect things (sometimes by accident). We are lazy, relaxed, funny, spontaneous and genuine. And of course, Orinoco is the name of a river in Colombia.  

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Presenting the Art platform "The Womble Collective"
    Artists: Alexander Buzzy Juan Toro  Neal Alexander                                            Rosa Baquero Felipe Leal
Medium : Zoom plataform  
2021