Red And Yellow Space Lobster Among The Reef
My current work references pollution of all kinds. Trash, plastics, and atmospheric pollutants threaten the land and oceans. Trash vortexes are concentrated by currents in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. These break down into smaller neurostatic bits, or nurdles.
Tragically, as plastic breaks down animals consume the nurdles thinking they are food. I have created an ongoing project using trash and salvaged materials from different areas of the world to create alternative life forms. My premise is that with all the trash humans have dumped in the ocean, life must evolve to survive, and so will use that abundant synthetic material to evolve in new ways.
Also the added CO2 in the oceans from atmospheric pollution means traditional calcium based shells and supports of sea creatures are not as available.
My work is a meditation on the great extinction and what will come after, how nature will use this abundant resource to evolve new life forms. It is a little incongruous, creating beautiful creatures out of trash and giving viewers a way to contemplate the ecological issues.
The use of recognizable material aids in the awareness and personalization of the greater phenomenon in the oceans. It also re-purposes garbage before it has to be disposed of in incinerator, landfill, or ocean.
