Cheryl Adam, Australian Grandmother Artist:

BUILDING A HOUSE OF TRASH WITH METRO MANILA URBAN POOR WOMEN

Cheryl Adam performs for Filipino women in her dress made out of recycled plastic.

Cheryl Adam, Australian grandmother artist, works with trash and

discarded objects, making them into something useful like wearable costumes, handbags and shoes. She makes tapestries from plastic and soft sculptures which have won awards and have been exhibited in art galleries in Australia.

Cheryl Adam is now in Manila to perform and exhibit at the Asia Pacific Women’s Conference on Peace and Security that shall be held at the Philippine Normal University on Sept. 8-10, 2009.

She is giving “Art and Craft from Trash” workshops to urban poor women members of Zone One Tondo Organization (ZOTO) this September 3-4. Among the participants to the workshop are former “bat people”, who used to live under bridges in Dagatdagatan due to their extreme poverty.

Together they will build a new house from trash, a shelter which could be moved about, created from the discarded waste for the discarded in society, the aged and the poor. The house from trash aims to show that functional objects can metamorphose from the ugly, disregarded and disposable.

Cheryl and the urban poor women building the house from trash together also

symbolizes unity among women from diverse cultures and backgrounds. This is a crosscutting theme of the Asia Pacific Women Conference.

The House of Trash will be opened to the public for viewing at the C-3 bridge in Sawata Barangay 28, Caloocan this September 7 at 9 – 11 am. The House of Trash will be moved to the conference venue in the PNU on Sept. 8-10.

Cheryl Adam is hosted by the Peace Women Partners, which is also the lead convenor of the Asia Pacific Women’s Conference on Peace and Security.

Those who want to know more about Cheryl Adam’s work and the Asia Pacific Women’s Conference on Peace and Security can call Merci Angeles at: 0927 7630186.

Conference website is at: http://www.visionsforanewworld.net/#solidarity

For details about the launch for public viewing of the House of Trash in Dagatdagatan, please call ZOTO at 2850254.