Words: Isa Bascuñana & Ezgi Kaya (@isabascunana @ezzzzzzgi)

When working as supervisors in a London art school, part of our job is to dispose of whatever art students have thrown away. We get to see all the materials and works that aren’t going to be used anymore, and we have to get rid of them by throwing them away in the Skip. Being on “Skip duty” is one of the saddest -but also one of the funniest- tasks.

During Degree Show installs, students bring whatever they don’t want to keep to the Skip and we help them to get rid of their stuff. The sad part of the Skip is, obviously, throwing away an abundance of materials, furniture and students’ artwork that they can no longer keep (reasons including: not having enough space to store works, students moving back to their homes outside of London or abroad, their work not being exhibited in the future, or simply because of not wanting to keep it anymore). Fair enough, these are all valid reasons for throwing things away. However, the endless task of disposing of materials and artwork inevitably led us to thinking about the cost of all of these materials accumulating in one place. We started putting together a list of all the random things we’ve seen and wondered how that would look as a shopping receipt. How could we even account how much everything costs, firstly to produce, then for someone to buy it, and then for us to throw it in a skip? The costs seemed endless as we kept playing Skiplimpics.

Aha, what’s Skiplimpics? Well, that’s the fun side of the Skip. The truth is, it has developed into a game we call with that name. This game was created by some of our colleagues and has continued throughout the years during the Degree Show install period. When the students bring their things to the Skip, we’re the ones organising them in the container. At the beginning, there is a system to Tetris everything properly: flat things to one side and boxy/bulkier items on another. Simple and easy. Yet, at some point, everything merges into one big mess and to make the most of the space, we have to get creative. To get things right to the back of the skip, we have to throw (aka yeet) objects to the back, which includes smaller objects such as sticks. Every time we throw something, we say (loudly): “SKIPLIMPICS!!” as we yeet the object. If the object is thrown in a somewhat satisfying way, then it’s a good throw, and if not and the object is stuck, we push it further back with a long stick. Skiplimpics is our moment of joy during a very chaotic period. 

The Skiplimpics receipt reflects this duality of the Skip process. The number of items on the receipt feels ridiculous, and so did we, when we kept seeing more and more of the same materials being thrown away. Aside from the cost and waste of money, the waste of making artworks is outstanding. On the one hand, experimenting with and the exploration of materials is encouraged and that’s not a negative thing. Still, couldn’t materials be used more intentionally? Shouldn’t we be finding other ways to use them and minimise waste produce?

About Isa Bascuñana and Ezgi Kaya

Isa Bascuñana (@isabascunana) is a multidisciplinary artist and graphic designer based in Madrid. Believing that art should be both engaging and accessible, all of her practice is infused with a sense of fun, inviting viewers to explore the different narratives as her work reflects a passion for visual storytelling and a keen eye for detail.

Ezgi Kaya (@ezzzzzzgi) is a Kurdish, London-based artist working across sculpture, film, and text. Her practice explores languages and their histories, and is particularly interested in the connections between translation, domestic life, family, stories, and memory. She combines text, film, sculpture, and printmaking to build artworks that weave these themes together.