Week 3 Recap!

Wow I can’t believe it is already week three!

This week was full of getting in the studio and starting to work on my sculpture. I also visited Molly Larkey's studio with my SURF mentor, Lia Halloran! It was stellar to hear about Molly's process of getting ready for her show that’s opening at the end of summer. Working through ideas, combining processes, and thinking about her work was super helpful to get me going in the studio. Seeing her work in person was a great experience because I have only seen them on my computer screen.

"The Not Yet (Signals 1-7)". Steel wrapped with linen, acrylic paint. Dimensions variable (approx. 48” x 216” x 30”). 2014

Its been great having my fellow fellow Francesca in the studio working along side me. She is currently working on a screenplay about a murder based off a true story that took place in El Paso in the early 70s. Having someone to bounce ideas off of and keep my art practice light hearted and fun is refreshing. I find that I work and create best when I am having fun and laughing. She also inspired me to create the video below as you can tell from the credits we both had a lot of fun making it. 

I have also been practicing my welding a lot this week and trying to conquer welding thin sheet metal. It has been a struggle but I am burning a lot less holes through the sheets. I also bought some scraps of this holed sheet of steel that has been really interesting to use. I got so into practicing on Saturday that I ended up making these sculptures below. I have mainly used square steel tubing in the past, so it was inspiring and challenging to work with the sheets instead. 

Next week is going to be a big push to get a TON of weaving done in the studio before I leave for Europe to do research at Documenta and the Venice Biennale. I am making 5 foot squares of woven tapestry like cloth out of the collected materials from the beach clean ups. 

Theo Jansen's "Strandbeest"

Theo Jansen an engineer, scientist, and artist who brings to life his very own beach creatures. Formed through computer algorithms these creatures are then created with flexible plastic tubes, adhesive tape, and an occasional zip tie here and there. Finally brought to life with the wind and wet sand of the Dutch coastline. Jansen continues to create them until one day they will be fully functioning without any human interventions.

Theo Jansen was originally a Physicist but switched his career to become a painter in the 70s. Fallowing his interests in aeronautics and robotics he began his project with creating artificial life through algorithm programs sparking his "Strandbeest" (beach beasts) kinetic sculptures. Story has it in 1980 that he crafted a UFO sculpture that emitted sound and launched it into the sky and the town broke out into an apocalyptic panic. After this event he was hooked on creating these life forms. He currently works in his laboratory creating more of these beach walkers and then sets them free on the Dutch coastline in herds. For a video to watch them in action click here. 

2 Strandbeest loek van der klis 16 Animaris Umerus Scheveningen 2009 kopie

Strandbeest twilight Theo Jansen Silent beach 2013

1 Strandbeest theo jansen stille strand Apodiacula 2

Week 2 Recap!

Shinique Smith. Bright Matter, 2013. Clothing and fabric culled from Los Angeles and ribbon on wood panel, 63 x 52 x 5 inches.

This week the gears were really set in motion. Starting the week off with a lot of sketching and drawing focused on planning my sculpture. The week ended with a beach clean up in Davenport, CA with my family and some friends. 

I was also able to attend the artist lecture by Shinique Smith at the space Art + Practice located in LA on Thursday night. It was really exciting to see her speak in person because she has greatly influenced my own work within the past year. Through her uses of textiles in a sculptural manner, she is able to create a dialogue through the cloths connection to culture, ideals, and history.  I find Shinique's understanding of her materials refreshing and an exciting sculptural conversation. Also to hear that I’m not the only one with weirdly large collections of items that I know will one day be part of a work but am hanging onto them until I know what that is! 

On Friday I met with a Chapman Alumna, Lauren Smith, that  works at the Orange County Coastalkeeper and learned about their beach clean ups they put on at Huntington State Beach and San Clemente State Beach. I learned that their biggest clean up was this past February at Huntington due to the large rains and trash flowing down the watershed. Also that in their location they focus on in Huntington is that the amount of trash is also affected by how good the surf is that week. So not only does the beach become a lot more strewn with trash during the busy summer season it also is dependent on the weather and the moon! 

Then ending the week participating in Save Our Shores beach clean up at Davenports CA main beach. I brought my parents and some close family friends. It was really exciting for me to see the differences in trash found. When we first got there and met with the representative from SOS we were informed that it was a party oriented beach so beer bottles and other items of that assortment were expected. She was spot on. I picked up so many metal beer caps as well as glass beer bottles. The other items that we found a lot of was burnt newspaper, cigarette butts, and wrappers from food. There was around 80+ pounds of trash collected with around 20 volunteers. Another exciting part of today was talking with everyone that came with me about how surprised they were to find so much trash even though it looks like a clean beach on first glance. I hope that I have created a shift in mindset of single use plastic and recycling options. 

Trash on the beach is really easy to overlook when you are surrounded by such beautiful views and a relaxing sound track of nature. I highly recommend the next time you are at the beach to take a look down at the sand and start to really see what’s beneath your feet. 

An experimentation with materials

Vik Muniz- Waste Land

Sitting in a Starbucks wiping away tears as I watched the ending of the film Waste Land a documentary on Vik Muniz project Pictures of Garbage. The film takes place at the landfill that has the largest daily intake of garbage located just outside Rio de Janeiro in his home country of Brazil.  It tells the story of Muniz going back to his place of birth and starts with him describing the beginnings of his artist journey to becoming the top selling Brazilian artist. He starts going to the landfill and creating friendships with those working there. He was surprised by the recycling pickers strong and beautiful mindsets of survival in such a tough and frowned upon form of employment. Muniz is there to create a work of art and then sell it at market and give all the money back to the community and people he works with at the landfill. Learning about the struggles of the pickers lives and hearing their goals and aspirations you as a viewer get connected to these people.

Through Muniz successful art career, he has come to the point where is is focused on a social practice process of creating. Where the works end goal is to make change within the topic being presented. It was beautiful experience to see the human connections he builds with the six pickers at the landfill location. One of the leading figures within the documentary was, Tião, a picker who was also the president of the pickers’ cooperative ACAMJG (the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho). Seven years later Tião is still a top leader with maintaining the rights of pickers. The photograph of Tião as Marat was made from recyclables from the landfill just like the other images. His photograph however was the only image to auction in London. He also went along for the journey and was there with Muniz when the work sold for $50,000. The documentary ended with all of the pickers that were represented within Vik Muniz’s work at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro where many of the pickers saw the finished work in person for the first time. To hear them speak to the media about the experience as a whole was a special moment to watch.

Valentina, The Fastest, 13 3/8 x 10 1/2 in.

The process of creating the huge works of art was quiet the production. Created on the floor of a large warehouse space, Muniz would stand high above in order to direct where items went on the projection of the image on the floor. A few of the six pickers were studio assistants and helped bring the work to life. Muniz’s did this because he wanted the pickers to be able to say, “We did it. Not Vik did it.” The process was very specific in certain detailed parts. A strainer was used to sift specific amounts of dirt to shade the body. Bottle caps and other small items were used to create rigid lines. In areas with large amounts of a similar color an assortment of all different sized items were piled on to create the areas, such as in the bucket that Irma rested on her head.

The ability of Muniz to have you question what kind of material is being used to create his imagery is what makes me very interested in his work. His attention to materials and how it relates to the topic and people he is portraying within a variety of his works including his series Sugar Children. The kids within the images are the children of sugar cane workers in the Caribbean. He meticulously uses sugar on black paper to render the children’s faces. The work discusses the youth and their happiness that greatly differed from their parents states of happiness due to the long hours working in the fields.

Vik Muniz work pushes me to think about how to use materials and why I am using it to create a work in the first place. Also, about being a social practice artist and how as artists we have the ability to make change through creating visual representations of people, events, and concerns we have about anything really. Through looking into Muniz’s work, it has made me re-think about the possibilities of what ocean plastics can represent and how to use them in the best manner.

 

Steve McPherson

Steve McPherson—Correlation, 100cm x 100cm, 2012

80 days sml

80 days year temp chart sml

           Steve McPherson who works near the UK coast has been collecting items from his local beaches for 20 years using what he find to create beautiful and shocking works of art. His work is greatly focused on the Marine plastic pollution on a global scale and working with data. I’m visualizing McPherson’s studio and can just see such beautifully organized boxes of some crazy items he has found on his beach walks picking up plastic pollution. Something I am hoping to have soon. McPherson sorts all collection of Marine pollution by color, which doesn’t always go perfectly due to him being colorblind. Many but not all of his works use a very scientific take on displaying his findings using grid like formations as well almost pie charts by using a circular form to display the information he is visualizing. The work becoming a beautiful collision of art and science.

            Three works of his that really inspired me are Correlation, Turbulent, and Wavelength. I was drawn to them first due to their beautiful configurations of color and use of material. Then through reading more about each one of them I was moved by how they all reveal data and a collection of materials all sourced from his local community. I have found it daunting going through statistics of ocean pollution and the horrible affects plastics are having on our ocean. One-person cant single handily fix the issue but bringing back to your community and doing your part is how change starts to happen. So seeing McPherson’s take on changing his local area through doing his own clean ups is an inspiration to keep going and change my backyard so to speak.

Correlation is a circular form where on first glance appears to be a colorful display of items neatly arranged on the canvas. But through reading it explains that it is a visual chart that has the locations visited by Phileas Fogg, the main character from Around the World in Eighty Days, and the varying temperatures in those cities. The work is the path of a journey that combines fiction and real life data and showing how warm these locations are on average. This representation of the heating of our planet is the right amount of information where it does affect you are but isn’t to over bearing where its too much to take in.

              Another work that is centered on world data is, Wavelength, which another circle of placed objects that are then sectioned off into 5 segments for each ocean. The work highlights the gyres of pollution within each ocean revealing the depth and size through the shifting colors.  Once again through it being so visually appealing the work allows for the viewer to linger and engage with the piece while not being to overtaken by the scary data being represented.

            Turbulent, 2014 is an explosion of black unaltered Marine plastics also found on UK beaches between 1994-2014. I get why he has the fact that they are unaltered because all together the black appears so saturated especially in the center where so many different pieces over lap creating a dark black hole esc center. The center then surrounded with a very meticulously placed items creating a maze look. On closer inspection you see how man-made and manufactured each piece is with small cereal codes and patterns pressed into the plastics. This work is again centered on a circular and center point in what is appearing to be an important aspect with in his works that use his collected Marine Plastics. Either referencing the global impact or the gyres of pollution circulating throughout the oceans the shape is a very strong aspect within the work mainly due to his ability to show the data he has collected.

              McPherson’s work to me is very successful due his brilliant way of showing such horrible data about how poorly our oceans are doing due to the over production of plastics. The use of material is so inviting and almost playful due to the colors and arrangement on the canvas. Looking forward to watching what he creates next and taking inspiration in his 20 years of cleaning up his local beaches.  

Week One Recap!

Collected trash from the clean up

On Saturday, I participated in Orange County’s Coastalkeeper Beach clean up at Huntington State Beach at Tower 2. For two hours a group of nearly 40 volunteers walked and collected 255 pounds of trash off of what appeared to be a clean beach. The Coastalkeeper hosts clean ups in this location every second Saturday of the month and at San Clemente State Beach on the first Saturday of the month. This year in Huntington they have collected 3,719 pounds and in San Clemente 1,116 pounds.

 I was very surprised to find so much on a beach that looked to be clean sand. They weren’t kidding about all the bottle caps either. It felt like that was what I was mostly picking up. Come to find out, organizers shared with us that Styrofoam and bottle caps are the most commonly found items collected on this section of beach.

Today I went through and cleaned the 40 pounds of trash that I had taken home with me after the event ended. It was interesting to see so many of the same items that either washed up to shore or were left behind on the beach. Straws, plastic wear, and zip ties made the most appearances. All items that are single use, unless you are a turn MacGyver and know how to reuse zip ties.

Next week on Fathers Day I will be taking part in another beach clean in Northern California that is led by Save Our Shores in Davenport, CA with my family. I am interested to see if I will be finding similar items or if there will be some new items not found down south. I am also interested to see if there will be any differences in the amount that is being collected because the Davenport clean up happens every week where Coastalkeeper’s is held in each location once a month. We shall see!!!

Above: Drawings from this week focusing on the impacts of humans and the differences of harbors and natural coastlines. 

Mariana Trench Plastic Findings

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(Credit: Dr. Alan Jamieson, Newcastle University)

The last frontier is not pristine as we may wish it to be. A recent study, Bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in the deepest ocean fauna, lead an expedition into the deepest trenches in the Pacific Oceans the Mariana Trench and the Kermadec. There they studied small crustaceans and there levels of man made chemicals Polychlorinated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. These POP’s are from industrial accidents and discharges, leakage from landfills and incomplete incineration. Form the 1930s to the 1970s around 1.3 million tons were created. Now 65% can be found in landfill and 35% is in coastal sediment and ocean waters. This is extremely negative to the ocean creatures because these POP’s bind to organic and inorganic particles near the surface and then drop down into the depths of the ocean to the ecosystems below that are mostly scavengers living off the decaying carrion.

“The fact that we found such extraordinary levels of these pollutants really brings home the long-term, devastating impact that mankind is having on the planet,” - Alan Jamieson(Credit Chronicle Live)

The scientists trapped by using deep-sea landers that are unmanned submarines that are able to go into the extremely deep depths. In the Mariana Trench, they trapped a Hirondellea gigas and found that it contained 50x higher amounts of the POP’s then crabs living in a Chinese river next to a highly populated area. The cause? Scientists believe it’s because Mariana Trench lies beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest trash vortex, which just as its name describes is a huge floating patch of trash. These POP’s also bioaccumulate, which means they build up over time.

 These findings are very concerning due to the fact that at least 8 million tons of plastic are ending up in our oceans every year. Unfortunately, consumers are highly dependent on this long lasting material since its creation in 1907. Because of its longevity, it increases its damage on the environment. The leading scientist, Alan Jamieson, explains, “We still think of the deep ocean as being this remote and pristine realm, safe from human impact, but our research shows that, sadly, this could not be further from the truth.” The Mariana Trench is so deep that if Mount Everest were placed inside the summit would still be one mile below the surface. It is on of the last eco systems in the world to explore and the affects of humans seemed to have already taken a humongous negative effect.

"The deep sea has no light, very low temperatures and scarce water movements," Melanie Bergmann, co-author of the study Arctic Ocean study, The recent AWI study. "So materials just sit there and accumulate." With trash removal taking a bigger toll then leaving the trash in place, scientists are now trying to understand the further knock-on effects to how these ecosystems are going to function in the future.

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For more great articles on the topic check out:

http://www.dw.com/en/from-the-mariana-trench-to-the-arctic-plastic-pollution-is-ocean-enemy-number-one/a-37541836

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/02/13/not-even-the-worlds-deepest-ocean-trenches-are-free-of-pollution-scientists-discover/?utm_term=.5cc4844dd12c

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/extraordinary-levels-pollutants-found-deepest-parts-sea

 

Katie Peck's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship

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       This summer I will be working on a research fellowship through Chapman University where I will be creating sculptures that address the environmental issues of costal areas due to the staggering amounts of ocean plastics.

       Growing up in San Jose, CA I spent a lot of time at the beaches in Santa Cruz and fishing throughout the Monterey Bay. The ocean has always been a special place for my family and me. With only 4% of the ocean under protection, it’s time to make drastic changes! 

       On this blog, I will be posting updates on my work as well as the artists whom influence my practices. Other topics that I’ll be covering will be the tremendous challenges with ocean plastics as well as my research trip to the 57th Venice Biennale and Documenta 14 were I will be researching site specific art and the pollution within Venice's canals. 

Image: You can break it, lose it, give it away and still have the love and memory of it

       I will be creating sculptures that will be welded together using steel rods to create approximate six feet tall structures that echo the lines in the natural coastline of Orange County but will maintain the architectural process of using an industrial material.  I will weave items from Orange County beach clean ups and natural products from the ocean side. This process of marrying two opposing materials--the natural woven within the anthropogenic industrial frame-- will highlight our society's impact on the environment due to the juxtaposition of the natural and manmade.

       My Spring Semester senior thesis has inspired me move into this new direction. I was given numerous types of materials and objects from family and friends who supported and loved me throughout my life.  I then hand wove around ten differing sculpture frames. It became a visualization of my life thus far and my appreciation for my community within it through the laborious act of weaving. Drawing from the process of creating within my thesis project, the work within my fellowship will be taking centralized visualization of the coastlines waste within the OC area. Looking forward to keeping you updated with my progress throughout the next 8 weeks!