What would you do if you saw a figure wrapped in a bin-bag, hunched over in the street? Would you be a bystander or would you intervene?
Artist Maxwell Rushton placed his sculpture Left Out, a disturbing symbol of homelessness, across London (Westminster Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, Bank and Waterloo) last summer. On each occasion he observed the public’s reactions as they past, some stopping to investigate what they thought was a person in a bin-bag, whilst others would simply walk on.
Left Out – (Full Documentary) from Maxwell Rushton on Vimeo.
DIVERGE spoke to Rushton to find out the story behind this project:
What urged you to do this?
As a teenager I spent some time in supported accommodation, since then I’ve known how vulnerable housing can be. Oddly it took tripping up over a bin-bag (which for a split second I thought was a homeless person) for me to start having the idea for this project. After this almost inconsequential experience of mistaking a bin-bag for a homeless person I started having a surreal feeling of dread which made me feel more empathetic to the plight of the homeless and I wanted to evoke that same feeling in others.
How long did it take?
It took a few weeks before I put two and two together to start making the first sculpture. The manufacturing of the sculptures are reasonably simple to make but being inside the cast as it hardens is both painful and claustrophobic. For about half an hour I sit with cramping legs hunched over, constantly pushing back against the heavy material on my neck and back to keep the shape whilst I attempt to visualise a river or a beach! When the cast is set it’s then a case of trying to wriggle out slowly like something shedding it’s skin.
From studio to street it only takes a few hours, but like most of my art the preparation and the conception of the idea is the majority of the work.
How did you record without others seeing you?
The first time I placed the sculpture on the streets I put it outside my nearest tube station and sat and watched the public’s reactions form a café opposite.
On the second occasion I asked a videographer friend Liam Thomson to come with me and shoot some footage. We did our location scouting the day before so we knew exactly what places would provide different demographics but also the specific locations which were ideal to set up the camera discreetly, for instance, behind a bus stop or a wall. Often we were filming from across the road as we had a camera with a sufficient zoom capacity (Liam shot the footage on a Panasonic GH4 with a fixed focal length prime in 4k, which allowed him to crop in tighter in a 1080p Hd edit).
What did you see?
When the sculpture exists in an urban space a lot can be said for people’s reactions and their non-reactions. Most of the time it was pretty shocking considering that without touching the sculpture it looks precisely like a person being suffocated in a bin bag. It sits unmanned without any reference that it is an artwork. What we saw was about 50% of all who noticed it showed some sort of concern, the other half of the public would just return their gaze back onto the pavement and continue walking. Perhaps it’s a reflex to avoid others in distress, or perhaps we’ve become desensitised to the suffering? Our mentalities seem to be divided in how we feel about each other.
That said, there were many occasions in which individuals would make sure what they were seeing was just a sculpture. One gentleman didn’t hesitate to rip the bag away from the face of the piece. On two occasions the police were called to investigate what I was doing, I’m happy to say that once I explained the work to them they left wishing us luck. A woman talked to me about a conversation she had had with her boyfriend who used to be a rough sleeper, and how the sculpture reminded her of his mental outlook as he revealed that part of his past to her.
What is your background?
I’ve always been focused on creating art, it’s something that I’ve kept to since a young teenager. I went to University and then moved to London as soon as I graduated and worked in the studio of another artist.
What are some of the other projects you are working on?
I’m currently making a painting called ‘Buy In Bleed Out’ which is a very large painting of a logo which I’m making using a vast amount of my blood. I’ve been collecting blood for this project sine 2011 and it’s almost complete. The work is about worshiping a material world and what happens when the gap is blurred between man and brand.
I’m also starting to collaborate more with 4-5 year olds to create new series of life size drawings of men and women.
What do you hope to get out of this?
I hope to evoke mercy so that we stop turning out gaze back onto the pavement.
