Tim Barlow’s Social Bonds Laboratory will be found at the site of The Old McDonalds in the Porirua CBD from late August until November. “I am creating a working production line on the site of the old Porirua Stream in celebration of Porirua’s industrial and workers history and the old waterways where Maori and Pakeha industry was once located. This workshop will be able to produce a range of products from locally sourced waste materials. I will be purifying polluted water, pulping flax from the tip, processing excess milk powder just as a start to encourage other actions.

“This project will be searching for local ideas on how this laboratory can produce use from wasted things. To integrate some community ideas for what should be done with the waste stream.”

“As an outsider to Porirua (I live in Wainuiomata) I plan to be grounded in Porirua for the next few months and get to know locals a bit better! I hope someone likes what I do, and wants to get involved!”

Tim Barlow is a Wellington artist with an MFA from Massey University Wellington 2011. He has extensive experience nationally and internationally in film and television art departments, and specialises in crossing boundaries of film production and art production. He has worked on collaborative projects with community and film based organisations. Commissioned projects include Manawatu Art Gallery, MONZ, Artspace (Auckland), Dowse Museum, Wellington Activity Centre, Vincents Art Workshop and many film production departments.

Barlow’s previous works include ‘The Still’ (1994), Dunedin, and ‘The Public Fountain’ (2012), with Letting Space in Taupo and Turangi in 2012, which saw a publicly activated geothermal fountain as the centrepiece for discussions with the community about their ownership of the geothermal power resource. He is currently completed a PhD at Massey addressing the ethics and politics of community art practice and social justice, and the social use and function of artists.