AMERICAN TRASH (with smatterings of Eurot rash)
eARThWe Gallery Bergamot Station 2525 Michigan Avenue, Space D5 Santa Monica, CA 90405
AMERICAN TRASH (with smatterings of Eurot rash)
TITLE
ARTIST
3-6 Pearls Before Swine
Marina DeBris
7. America
Lila Roo
8. Titanic
Peter Kreitler/ John Reiff Williams
9. Sarcophagus
Portia Munson
SEPTEMBER 27 - NOVEMBER 8, 2014 CURATED BY MARINA DEBRIS
T
he Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy likes to say, as she stands in the forest with her students, “Open your eyes and look into the mirror.” Beholding the magnificence of trees, we see our own divinity reflected back to us. And in piles of our waste we face the twisted visage of our collective disconnection and lostness. When I first published my Midway photographs of dead albatrosses filled with plastic, a common internet comment was “If those birds are so stupid that they can’t tell the difference between food and garbage, they deserve to die!” The irony is that we humans unknowingly suffer from this same malady these days: an increasing inability to discern what is nourishing from what is toxic - to our bodies, our culture, our minds, and our spirits. Look, if you can bear it, into the polluted mirror of our beaches and waterways, into the trash-choked stomachs of marine creatures of all kinds; walk through the kaleidoscopic halls of consumptive horrors that are our convenience stores, malls, supermarkets, fast food chains, sushi restaurants. And so the immortal molecules seep in invisibly, up through the food chain, into our veins and endocrine systems and across the blood-brain barrier. Open your eyes and watch in slow motion as our denial-fueled dream of endless exploitation and destruction shatters all around us and inside us. But don’t worry, the shards won’t cut you; the mirror was only made of plastic. ~chris jordan, Seattle, Sept 2014
10. Reflecting Pool
Portia Munson
14. Hooked on a Feeling
Jon Stich
11. Pink Project; Table
Portia Munson
15. Eye of the Ocean
Pam Longobardi
12. Dry Land
Jon Stich
16. What’s for Supper?
Richard & Judith Lang
13. Rewind
Jon Stich
17. Box
Dianna Cohen
18. Maya
Dianna Cohen
22. Plastihydrophinae
Brent Alex
19. Torso
Dianna Cohen
23. Capture of ManoAsteroidea Brent Alex
20. [Mylar]batoideai
Brent Alex
24. Last Supper with iPhone
Vilde Rolfsen
21. Mop Jelly
Brent Alex
25. Self Portrait
Vilde Rolfsen
26. I Spy Something Red
Julie Kornblum
30. Unsustainable Creature: Camel
27. Lya, Whitney, Kathrin
Gregg Segal
31. Ruminations
Marina DeBris
28. Dana
Gregg Segal
32. Wildlife Traps
Fran Crowe/Marina DeBris
33. A Present from‌
Fran Crowe/Marina DeBris
29. Alfie, Kristen, Miles and Elly Gregg Segal
Cynthia Minet
Camel gastrolith found within 100 mile radius of Dubai. There are impromptu landfills and trash blowing across the desert. Camels, cows and donkeys forage in these areas, consuming trash. It is more common than not to find indigestible material in their guts, likely causing ulcers and discomfort until death.
34. Finding Freedom from the Known
Calethia DeConto
38. Siren ‘68
James Cline
35. Earth Dance
Calethia DeConto
39. Trash of the Sea
Rohitash Rao
36. Plastizoic Genesis Creature David Edgar
40. Driftwood Crow
Aaron Kramer
37. Bay Shrimp ‘68
41. Circulatory
Dianna Cohen
James Cline
42. Ballgown
Marina DeBris
46. Piccadilly
Sayaka Ganz
43. Trash Tote
Penny Collins
47. Moon
Lila Roo
44. House
Aaron Kramer
48. DNA
Marina DeBris
45. Our Layer
Julie Kornblum
49. Pacific Rim
Julie Kornblum
50. Old Glory
COUNTER ITEMS All The Way To The Ocean (from the book)
Marina DeBris
Marq Spusta/ Joel Harper
De Brees Jewellery Cluster Brooches
Marina DeBris