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Plasticosis
An immersive installation consisting of eight, 7ft long silk cyanotype panels and a floor cushion covered in a 5x7ft cyanotype fabric print. The artworks depict ethereal compositions of plastic debris found along the shorelines of Vancouver’s beaches. Each textile was created on-stie using the cyanotype process; a two-hundred-year-old method of photography (camera-less). I was drawn to this form of printmaking to illuminate parallels between the ocean plastics crisis depicted and the creation of the artwork itself. Being an uncontrolled process, surrendered to time, UV light, found objects and unpredictable elements of nature – the process mimics the lifecycle of plastics in our oceans and my feeling of no control over regulation, usage, or waste management of the mass consumed plastics in today’s disposable society.
This print process was famously used by Anna Atkins for documentation of sea algae in the 1800’s and is considered the first form of photography. As a female photographer, I resonate with this history and kindred ambition to document ocean matter; however, today it’s the age of plastic oceans that I am documenting.
The immersive installation itself works to create a calm space for introspection and contemplation about the inescapable presence of plastics in our daily lives. Lying on the floor to view art establishes a unique experience with a perspective mimicking being beneath the surface of the ocean and seeing what’s afloat. The installation is animated via motion, which is easily activated through the lightweight silk substrate selected for the panels. The monochromatic blue plays a soothing role for the viewer’s psyche, fostering the capacity to cultivate the level of cognition required for advanced problem solving; hopefully towards our planet’s plastic crisis.
The artwork was created in collaboration with The Surfrider Foundation, as well as members of my family; my three-year-old daughter Meadow, and my Grandmother completed all of the required sewing, establishing a generational tie to the artwork.
The artwork was curated into the group exhibition NONRETURNABLES, at Two Rivers Gallery, in Prince George, BC and was on exhibit from July 28th, 2023, until January 8th, 2024.