Plasticozoic/Artifacts of the Anthropocene

SMSU Event Center BC

I have investigated, through an artistic lens, how perception and distortion impact our relationships to each other and our environment in our current era. I excavate these concepts though artworks made with glass, mixed media, and found objects. I am inspired spired by biological forms and the disciplines of archeology, geology, and anthropology. My recent work has incorporated marine detritus, plastic articles of trash that will outlive those who used them. I grow crystals on them to create “Artifacts of the Anthropocene” that look like mineral crystals that contain plastic. I have also collected bits of plastic from the California coast and created transparent glass rock forms in which to encapsulate them. This work, 111(Tipping Point Project) has one piece from each year since the 1907 invention of plastic. My artworks can be be seen as time capsules, pseudo-artifacts, or archaeological discoveries of the future. In the same way we search for clues from the past that will further our understanding, I hope that closely examining the artifacts of our time, as if they were future discoveries, will stimulate new perceptions and provide insights into our present relationship with the world. I am inspired to work with found plastic because, as marine scientist Sylvia A. Earle put it, “Future geologists will be able to precisely mark our era as the Plasticozoic, the place in the sands of time in which bits of plastic first appeared.” The exhibition of this work will open at RAFFMA on April 26, 2018.