Apocalypse Toys
May 2024
Water Runoff, Trash, Silicone
12.5” x 9” x 6.5”
“Apocalypse Toys” discusses our slipping chances of mitigating and reversing climatic and environmental changes caused by the mistreatment of resources. The work uses the form of a popular childhood toy to examine the artist's own experience growing up in a dying world and question how the climate crisis will impact the childhood experience of future generations.
The toy is filled with water runoff and garbage collected from the Dry Creek No. 2-3 Stormwater Sewer Basin (part of the Boulder Creek Watershed) near the artist’s home. Dry Creek No. 2-3 is a problem location identified by the City of Boulder due to its frequent drainage problems and poor water quality.
They toy’s tubular form and flexible materials makes it so the object can slip easily out of the viewers hands. This is reflective of the slipping global health, our failure to properly manage natural resources, and our inability to rectify the climate crisis.
Fishy
September 2024
Stuffed Blue Sharks & Colorado trash
D.V.
“Fishy” uses the form of a stuffed Blue Shark (Prionace glauca) to envision a close reality where the effects of the environmental crisis on charismatic megafauna, like the Blue Shark, become so deeply associated with the species that their symptoms are reflected even in their representations, such as in children’s toys.
The piece references a Stanford study that identifies the Blue Shark as a species of “high concern” in regard to their rate of plastic ingestion.
Glum Globes
August 2024
Mixed media & water from Colorado mountain streams
17” x 11” x 8”
“Glum Globes” explores disaster tourism. The piece questions what turns a site of environmental disaster into a spectacle. The work uses snow globes and samples from Colorado waterways that do not meet Clean Water Act requirements.
Mountain streams are symbols of clean water. However, for decades in Colorado, mining has led to a high concentration of destructive pollutants within the state’s waterways. Even so, Colorado’s mountain streams remain emblems of pristine, untouched wilderness and are visited by tourists as such.