At the Blue Star Contemporary gallery in San Antonio, there is an interactive and colorful exhibition that presents a unique adaptation that is currently happening in our oceans. When I entered the gallery and made a left from the entrance, just down the hall there was this wooden stage with binoculars placed along a rail. Beyond that rail was a floor covered with organic cut prints, each displaying a colorful structure that looked like a pile of hamster tubes and party frills. But when I looked through the binoculars at one of these structures, those frills and tubes became cut up soda bottles, caps, and stacked tampon dispensers. This is Margaret Craig’s Sea Islands and the structures on the ground represent various anemones, barnacles, and other aquatic micro-organisms. When I read the scavenger hunt on the right wall, she informs the viewer of this new adaptation all these creatures are undertaking due to the abundance of microplastics in their environment. Craig draws from expert knowledge in Biology and her skills in printmaking to make this hyperbolic demonstration of the plastification of these creatures. And for me as Geology student, is a foreboding occurrence. Take for example the species Mollusca Polyethlena she mentions at the bottom of the frame. It’s a mollusk that processes calcite, an abundant mineral that is found in limestone and marble, a rock that makes up most ancient and modern reef floors, in a similar way to ancient Ammonites used to make their shells. To give you an idea of just how abundant calcite is, one of the most common sedimentary rocks found all over Texas is limestone because half the State was once an ocean floor. The white beaches and reefs of Florida are made of limestone sand and rock. And that’s just a fraction of the world. The fact that plastic is saturating the oceans more than calcite, is disturbing. “Life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories, crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously.” -Dr. Ian Malcom This quote from Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park that ties in well with Craig’s purpose, to show this unexpected direction ocean life is taking. These creatures are recycling the plastic they find, just as Craig did in her process to make and represent them with the discarded plastics she collected. However, unlike human beings that have a choice to use plastic, these creatures aren’t making choices amongst the natural resources they find in their environment. Rather some have adapted to the abundance of plastic the keep absorbing because it’s become more available than some natural resources such as calcite. The fact the amount plastic in these oceans has become impactful enough to encourage these adaptations, inspires a foreboding line of questions, much like the DNA research conducted in Jurassic Park. Whether or not this adaptation will be seen and helpful or harmful to ocean ecosystems remains to be seen. I don’t believe plastic manufacturers or generations past that encouraged its use could’ve predicted the present we’re in. But when I look at these structured organisms, it makes me ponder how much people have adapted to plastic as a livelihood like these creatures as a material for our daily consumption. It contains vital water, transports our food, and organizes our everyday needs. But unlike these anemones and barnacles that hold onto that plastic for their survival, we often treat it a disposable one-time resource and have had to teach ourselves to recycle it into other things. Food for thought. This was just my unique experience with Margaret Craig's exhibition, given our related scientific backgrounds. As a work of art, I find the interactive element of the binoculars to be a clever representation of microscopes. The close up I posted, does not do the experience justice. Her playfulness with scale and the fished eyed effect of a binocular’s lens really invokes that lab experience. I recommend the reader experience her exhibition which will be on display till January 5th of 2020 at the Blue Contemporary in San Antonio. For more information about Sea Islands, you can read her Artist’s statement here. Sam Medina
3 Comments
Kayla Swinford
11/4/2019 01:11:15 pm
I was also really drawn to Craig’s work, and I’m glad you’re highlighting it while giving us more background on it. And like you, I was also interested to the interactive element of the work. With this element I felt like the artwork functioned in two separate ways. You could choose to look closely at it through the binoculars and be confronted by the plastic trash, which you discussed. The other option would be to look at it without the binoculars and view the work far away and blurred together. This allows the viewer to avoid the reality that these fun colored corals are trash. Which represents the choice aspect you brought up, between using or not using plastics, we as a viewer have a choice to view the harsh reality of the work or not.
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Caroline Frost
11/4/2019 01:46:06 pm
This is a really insightful post, Sam! I too was intrigued with this installation, and, I too often return to Jeff Goldblum’s quote in Jurassic Park, “life finds a way;” I recognized this allusion immediately, it deeply resonates with me. As you imply, the plastification of these micro-organisms is simultaneously a remarkable feat of evolution and an incredibly foreboding occurrence.
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Caroline Frost
11/4/2019 01:49:06 pm
Note for Erina: in copying and pasting this document from Word, my italicization of "Sea Islands" (twice) and of "Stone" did not translate.
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