ABOUT

Ashley Phillips, the Creative Director at Glartique Ltd was introduced to Ealing Council by Jill Sheridan of Arts Installation Services. Ealing Council in London commissioned Glartique to design and create a 6m high sustainable Christmas tree to help highlight, support and inspire people to reuse and recycle plastic in the Borough.

The steel sub frame was laser cut and fabricated by master welders to make efficient use of height and width and allow 900 reused plastic water bottles to be securely attached to the structure. Neon flex was chosen to be the only means of lighting the tree, based on its vibrant and glowing light and its excellent flexible and weatherproof properties. The installation has a continuous 50m length of green neon flex attached to the inside of the structure connected to the 23 steel rings going up to in a giant spiral.

The ingenious design and structure was constructed on site on Dec 1st 2013 in front of Ealing Town Hall and was on display for 4 weeks.

The beauty of the design meant that it was be like a giant meccano set and can be dismantled and re used again. We have been asked to rebuild it for Dec 2014, the location and details are TBC. CNN international voted our creation the 12th most spectacular Christmas tree in the world for 2013.

Ashley a graduate of Chelsea College of Arts and Goldsmiths also teaches Art & Design at Harrow High School, is an Associate Lecturer at Chelsea College of Art on the MA Textiles course to bring sustainability to the forefront. Glartique transforms functional surfaces into art.