For an exhibit at the Gualala Art Center, Mirka Knaster, with co-curator Paula Haymond, asked the timely question, You Made that with Plastic? Eighteen fine artists with thoughtful responses, answered with expert artistry and doses of good humor.
Our beach plastic ATV made the trek with us as we drove HWY 1 winding through Bodega Bay, Jenner, Fort Ross, Timbercove, Sea Ranch then on up to Gualala. Spectacular ocean views, abundant wildflowers, and the companionable enjoyment of each other's company made for a perfect day trip getaway.
We were invited to bring our black plastic to do a reprise of RIDE-ON our successful pile-up at 120710 in Berkeley. But not wanting to repeat ourselves plus knowing that each venue offers a new way to display, we wanted to do it differently.
Thanks to Artforum (January 2024), we found the answer.
How could it be that we had never heard of esteemed conceptual artist Bernar Venet whose work built on the legacies of Dada, Fluxus, and Minimalism? His first sculptural work, Pile of Coal (1963) expressed the force of gravity when the material, dumped into a heap, took its form. This performative gesture was his embrace of “randomness, disorder, and unpredictability.”
When we caught sight of the photo of Venet unloading his dump truck of coal, something clicked, a light went on, and the idea of our black plastic being enacted as a performative event would offer a different way of turning our trash into treasure and, in this case, with a bow to the historical antecedents of piles — Smithson, Vautier, Kaprow.
Mirka agreed to dump our bins, letting the plastic fall where it may. HUZZAH, we were so happy!!! as we watched the plastic tumble into place. Our ATV vehicle was placed on top of that pile.
Our piece, now named PILE IT ON, is literally and figuratively, in the center of the gallery, and is the center piece of the show.
Each piece of plastic used in the creation of this jewelry was collected from a 1,000-yard stretch of Kehoe Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore. The brightly colored bits are "curated" from the confetti strew that washes up onto the beach. In my studio, they are cleaned, sorted into color and kind then become my "inventory." Sometimes an unusual shape will spark a design reverie. Sometimes the rich surface, the sea-buffeted patina will incite the creative process. Sometimes the recognizable part of something (a piece of a comb or a juice lid) will evoke the question — could that have once been mine?
Wearing one of my eye-catching pieces always attracts much attention and is a perfect segue to talk about problems with plastic in our oceans and on our beaches. Although the news about plastic pollution is dire, by putting a little fun and fashion into the conservation conversation, I hope that the value of the plastic detritus will increase so that soon everyone will be out at the beach “shopping” for a special piece of plastic trash or will be eager to “mine” the North Pacific Gyre for plastic treasures. Then, we get some great things to wear and to look at, plus we get a clean and healthy sea.
After years of collecting plastic, I craft my choicest finds into unique art-to-wear pieces —hand-crafted, one-of-a-kind, made exclusively from Kehoe Beach plastic. They can be worn or displayed as a precious artifact, a relic of contemporary consumer culture.
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| Widening Gyre |
When opening their milk carton in the morning most people don’t even notice the plastic pull-tab. It’s so small, it's nigh invisible. Milk used to come in clear glass bottles delivered on one's doorstep. Years later, at the store, milk was bought in a boxy wax carton with a fold-open spout. Now, in the name of sanitation and convenience, milk cartons have been “improved” with plastic safety pull-tabs. Now, thousands of these ubiquitous tabs are making their way to the landfill and some times end up on the beach.
To draw attention to this blight, I made a bracelet by looping one loop inside the other and on around until the final one loops into the first one. People always take note of my unique jewelry, which gives me the opportunity to talk about plastic and to encourage action about everything, even about milk cartons.
You Made that with Plastic?
The artists, the artworks, and the enthusiastic crowd made for an exciting opening reception. You made that with plastic? sparked talk aplenty and many more questions.
We hope that gallery visitors will think about our pile of black beach plastic — what we, just two people, collected from just 1,000 yards of one beach, Kehoe Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore. That they will take a close look and hopefully, discover in the mess of shards and fragments, recognizable objects and ask themselves, could that comb have once been mine? and ponder — what can we do with the wreck of our petroleum-based consumer culture?
Mirka Knaster's summary and review of the show Turning Plastic into Art.
