My work at Free Range 2012.

“Curiouser and curiouser…” Lewis Carroll.

Thinking about story behind Cork…

Last year I met some people who gave a talk about the issues surrounding the harvesting of Cork and how the invention of screw top bottles has impeded on the lives of those who work harvesting it, and on the environment and animals in the forests where the Cork grows. Cork is a sustainable and renewable source.

Their work was a local experiment in Cornwall and they made the story as widespread as possible, they labelled bottles who used real cork and encouraged the purchase of those…in a small period of time they were able to monitor the demand and appreciation for the issue and this would mean they could continue the project elsewhere and spread the word!

The reasons for using bottle caps  and rubber/ plastic corks as a better alternative are actually a lot worse and are not overly true. For instance:

a) To stop “corking” or distaste of wine. It has been found that there isn’t much difference made here in terms of preserving taste.

b) Monetary reasons…it may be cheaper to produce plastic corks, but it makes no difference of the price of the wine you are buying so supporting the Cork Trade is positive and is a simple choice by the consumer.

I am reciting all these details from memory but it is a truly intriguing topic and as my work is becoming more and more conceptually issue based it is something to be thinking about…

Find out more about The Cork Initiative here… 

http://thecorkinitiative.org/The_Project.html

Spread the word!

Moodboard: Victoria Westerman + grape & raspberry toadstools + bumble bee in a pot.