Anthropocene Series

 

"The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation … An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. 

 

― George Carlin

 

 

The Geological Society of America has reported the discovery of a new kind of "rock" found on Kamilo Beach, Hawaii. A mix of both organic and manmade materials, this material is referred to as plastiglomerate.

 

Javier Sasieta creates work from tide wrack, or marine debris washed ashore as well as other found objects and traditional mediums. Fascinated by fossils and archaeology, he combines the organic and manmade materials he scours to comment on the nature of earth's adaptation and potential for this anthropogenically influenced material to form a marker horizon of humans interaction with the Earth.

 

In an attempt to control the earth, mankind plays god and has littered the planet with nonorganic and non biodegradable items, his art explores the ways the earth chould repurpose these materials, cultivating something new. 

 

His work examines the relationship between art and science and the qualites that make us human.  It reflects the idea that the earth will reclaim the garbage, take everything humans have thoughtlessly done to harm it, and make it its own. It's a self-healing, innovative organism that knows how to restore itself.  Taking that which wounds, that challenges, and creating something new and whole from the discord. 

 

His work is also a portrait of the 20th Century's disregard for the environment and a reflection of the absurdity of humanity. What are we leaving behind? What are future generations going to dig up from our civilization? This plastiglomerate "rock"? A mountainside made of plastic forks, knives, and bent bottle caps? Styrofoam may never vanish, but it will evolve into something different.