A green skip in Margate transforms into a giant shopping basket to mark Black Friday

Launching today on Black Friday, Margate-based artist Hayden Kays has collaborated with SKIP Gallery on Tipping Point, transforming a green-coloured skip into a giant shopping basket to encourage locals to throw their rubbish into it.

The interactive artwork hopes to highlight our throwaway, consumerist society, on what is deemed one of the biggest days for retailers of the year. “I know I’m talking rubbish,” says Hayden, “but this time it’s important. The land has had its fill. The sculpture is not anti-consumerism, it’s anti-wastefulness. Our single-use culture is treating the planet in the same style way. Let us at least not lose the world by default and inaction.”

It’s just one of many thought-provoking exhibitions by SKIP, the “mobile art space” created by Lee Baker and Catherine Borowski of Baker & Borowski to present an alternative to the conventional routes to art – not just for artists but viewers, too. You could say their unique idea has never been so pertinent, in a year that has seen most cultural institutions and galleries around the world indefinitely closed or temporarily put on hold.

“Our intention is to develop and grow as a democratic platform for all the arts, and the modular nature of the skip means that projects are not confined by the usual limitations of a conventional creative platform,” says Catherine.

Tipping Point by Hayden Kays is one of a series of SKIP’s exhibitions in Margate over the coming months, curated by Mercedes Workman of Resort Studios, part of South East Creatives. “In a year that has had brought very little joy to anyone, as lockdowns feel normal and viewing art indoors nigh-on impossible, I felt we really needed to bring art to people,” says Mercedes.

Find out what else is in store this winter in Margate at www.resortstudios.co.uk