My namesake and Hampton resident Silas Birtwhistle is being widely acclaimed for his creative current project. With the aim to promote marine conservation, A Table At The Sea's Edge has seen him travel the globe collecting dirftwood, from which he is making a table and 12 chairs to seat world leaders at a summit in Japan later this year.
He's made himself at home at the Stables Gallery in Twickenham while he completes the pieces, an apt location given that its the home of Richmond Council's Arts Service.
The Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan in October, part of the International Year of Biodiversity, will be the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties. A number of United Nation's debates will take place regarding environmental issues. Birtwhistle's table and chairs will be the centre piece of the conference, and will then travel the world to various venues throughout 2011.
And each of the chairs is currently being offered for sponsorship to help facilitate the whole project, and many organisations have helped bring Silas to this point including The World Wildlife Fund. Eventually the work will be auctioned off to raise funds for the Non Government Organisations involved, and the indigenous communities where the driftwood was collected.
The project will be at the Stables Gallery until 23 March.
Silas Van Der Bas
Thank you for reading thebestof Richmond Blog. If you have something to say about Richmond and what's going on for you, we'd love to hear from you. Come and blog with us: email richmond@thebestof.co.uk
TheBestOfRichmond Blog - what's on, where and why
Silas Van Der Bas is a freelance writer and photographer with The Little White Studio.
