Richard with Megan Foulkes, a Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center staff naturalist, took an early group out to the shore. At the Center as folks arrived for the CleanUP, Judith spoke to them about our Shore Stories exhibit and the art workshop. She showed them samples of the “jewelry” they could make and told them about the participatory public sculpture project.
By late morning folks were returning to the Center with bag loads of trash. They transformed their trash into colorful arrangements of plastic that they took home as sculptures and necklaces.
We had no idea what people would collect or in what quantity so we were astonished that the most abundant find was chunks and bits of Styrofoam packaging material. Because most of it had either been at sea a long time or had been caught in the tidal area, it had a rich aged patina, hardened like chucks of granite.
In an improvisational gesture, inspired by Louise Bourgeois’ Personnages, the totem stacks of wood she created in the late 1940’s, the Coastal CleanUP participants helped us perforate the Styrofoam then stack it on to the white dowels we supplied to create “pickUP sticks”. Everyone was thrilled to know that this group endeavor would be on display for the duration of the exhibition.
When we began the day we were all strangers but by the end of the day a special bond was forged among us. We all had come to understand the imperative of cleaning the planet up and had had some creative fun.
