BOX PRINTS
2013
Garbage, and the human response to it, has shaped cultures and civilizations for thousands of years.
Ancient landfills and middens, with an absence of plastics and modern toxic substances, contained organic and inorganic material that took up space but, in many cases, removed that detritus and waste that would otherwise have negatively impacted the health and functioning of the area’s inhabitants.
In contrast, the garbage created by our modern, global culture of consumption and disposablitity is negatively impacting the health our entire planet on an unprecedented scale and at an unprecedented rate. Our disregard for the environmental impact of our desire for ease, excitement, and stuff continually transforms the global landscape and our human experience of it. From toxic by-products of mining to contaminants created in industrial production of goods, we continue to produce more than we can reasonably and safely dispose of.
In addition, modern industrial production—and our use and disposal of its’ products—continually discharges methane, carbon dioxide, and other gases that contribute to anthropogenic climate change.
Box Prints addresses this phenomenon with the hope that humankind is capable of making changes that will mitigate or even reverse these phenomena. This series of screen prints on unfolded cardboard food packaging portrays Miami both through landmarks and ordinary street scenes. Miami, a low-lying metropolis built on haphazardly drained marshland, will likely be among the first to suffer serious consequences of climate change.
Food is sustenance—what any living thing requires for survival—but our reliance on plastic to produce and distribute food products is contributing to the very condition that threatens that survival. The plastic windows of the packages in this work has been removed, and replaced with darning and embroidery: a call to transform what threatens to be disaster into something constructive and rewarding.
