In this Satuday Art Club, we will be making mosaics inspired by Alex Frost’s works. Alex Frost is an artist based in London. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art with a Masters of Fine Art in 1998. Frost’s art captures a life ‘on-the-go’. He is interested in our consumerist culture and how it permeates into our everyday lives.

His Ryvita sculpture was displayed in GoMA in the Tales of the City and You, Me, Something Else exhibitions. This artwork is one of several sculptures for which Alex Frost has appropriated shop-bought packaging. In this case he has used Ryvita packaging, rendering it in mosaic to cover a large irregular, rock-like sculptural form. The graphic identity of Ryvita and similar products that Frost has referenced in his work, such as V8 vegetable juice and Earl Grey tea, are familiar to most of us from advertising and supermarkets even if we do not use them. 

Frost is interested in a private language communicated through these products. It is a language of adult concerns (sophisticated and aspirational) which contradict the whimsical nature of the work. In his practice, which incorporates drawing as much as sculpture, Frost demonstrates an interest in employing techniques and materials, such as mosaic, that are as closely associated to craft as they are to fine art. His first major public artwork, The New Easterhouse Mosaic was unveiled at Platform in Easterhouse, Glasgow in 2012.

Why not recreate your own mini version of Alex Frost’s sculpture using materials found around your home?

Method:

Look around your house for some packaging that you can use for this project such as egg boxes, toilet roll tubes and familiar packaging such as Ryvita or After Eight Mints. For the main collage material, paint tester cards work very well, although you can use any paper or packaging that you find.

Cut the paint tester cards, coloured paper and packaging into random shapes for the mosaic pieces and then carefully glue these onto the egg box.

If you enjoyed this, you can make a larger version using a cardboard box or other object which you can cover with the mosaic pieces. 

Alex Frost’s sculpture is made from ceramic tiles, grout, polystyrene and glue. The sculpture looks as though it would be very heavy, but as it is mainly made up of the polystyrene, it is actually surprisingly light.