Plastic is the Alien Invasion We Created
Plastic is the Alien Invasion We Created
Hundreds of extinctions have been caused by invasive alien species. The ecological cost is the irretrievable loss of native species and ecosystems. - WWF
Plastic is the Alien Invasion We Created
The way in which plastic waste accumulates and destroys has a distinct form.
Five years ago I began hand-sewing linen shrouds around single-use plastic containers. They are used to transport products that last a moment compared to these containers’ lifespans. Through my research and my enshrouding, I came to see these objects not as collective trash, but as individuals, aliens if you will, that would long outlive me.
They are like a living virus invading our bodies and planet: poisoning, entangling, strangling, starving and supplanting.
Plastic is the Alien Invasion We Created - detail
Plastic is the Alien Invasion We Created
begun 2015
discard single-use plastic containers
used linen
photographs
Sophia Burke
The Fog Warning
The Fog Warning
The Fog Warning - detail
The Fog Warning
His frail boat rides like a shell upon the surface of the sea…the stealthy fog enwraps him in its folds, blinds his vision… afloat in a measureless void. The Fisheries of Gloucester, 1876
The Fog Warning
The Fog Warning focuses on the effect of plastic on the oceans. Plastic is non-biodegradable so every bit of plastic created will exist forever, continuing to break down, like the immense gyres of plastic in the oceans are degrading into a micro-particle fog.
As with the discarded small appliances, I enshroud discarded single-use plastic containers. In both instances the tightly stretched linen banishes the illusion of busy purposefulness, leaving behind an unusual matte solidity...and quiet.
While researching my another project Ghost Salmon, I read about the Atlantic cod fishery, including the traditional east coast fishing boat - the dory. In this project dories made of birch bark will represent a time before factory ships and the devastation of fisheries worldwide.
Three full-size dories will be constructed of birch bark and filled with enshrouded single-use plastic containers. Floating above the floor - in mourning for the oceans and fisheries where the primary catch of the day is now plastic.
Though dories were never made of birch bark, I chose to use it for their construction, as birch bark is a natural material that symbolizes a pre-plastic sustainable culture.
The Fog Warning - study
begun 2015
discard single-use plastic containers
discarded corrugated cardboard
used linen
photographs
Anna Gustafson