Steel street sweeping blades break off and fall from large street sweeper trucks when they clean. They are left behind to rust on city streets the world over. Thousands of these thin metal strips have been collected by me and on my behalf by friends in many cities, including Canberra, Melbourne and Perth in Australia, from Seattle in the USA and Hanoi in Vietnam.

Over the past year I have been using various recycled media, often in combination with the red-and-white colours of a STOP sign, to spell out a new binary/ascii message, which decoded reads:

rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable & sustainable future for all: IPCC 2023

It's a quote from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who in March of 2023 published their Sixth Assessment Report. In Part C of their “Headline statements…’, under the heading Responses in the Near Term, C1: Urgency of Near-Term Integrated Climate Action, is written:

“Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health (very high confidence). There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all (very high confidence).” (1)

Along with this message, (applied via a single kiln-fired vitreous enamel dot per sweeper link) this work employs the offcuts from the installation work rapidlyclosingwindow.. #1, as well as recycled steel chain links.

This work is being held from sale in Banner and Badge, as it is committed to an exhibition in Munich in March of 2025. Melissa is taking orders for new jewellery works using these materials and message, each to be made in a unique configuration.