American trash catalog

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