LABORATORY
This kaleidoscope above transforms fragments of ocean microplastic, gathered from the very beaches where industrialists extracted and accumulated oil in Los Angeles, into a vibrant yet unsettling composition. Bound together by raw oil globs, these abstracted plastics twisting around in circles reflect the temporal cycle of fossil fuel as both marvel and scourge—born from ancient fossilized matter, consumed in the present, and destined to endure indefinitely. The interaction creates a dynamic interplay: move forward and the fragments explode outward in a riot of chaos, an eruption of destruction; move backward and it collapses inward, a black hole of ecological degradation and colonial extraction. The ungraspable entanglement of fossil capital, ecological degradation, and enduring colonial impact mark the landscape with a dizzying fusion of anthropocenic (or capitalocenic) permanence.
A Truvada container reborn, brimming with a kaleidoscope of microplastic fragments. They mirror the shattered facets of my mental being, once confined by the grip of OCD. Each piece is meant to be offered to a patient in the OCD Intensive Treatment Program as a pre-exposure therapy prophylaxis to remember how chaos intertwines with resilience.
This furniture series weaves vibrant hues of epoxy and ocean microplastics from Los Angeles beaches into a narrative of deep geological time. Each piece embodies the entanglement of labor, industry, and ecological impact, reflecting the imprint of fossil capital on the Earth’s past and present. The materials—epoxy as a forever chemical and microplastics as persistent pollutants—serve as a haunting reminder that we are threads in an unfolding tapestry of time, both creators and inheritors of its legacy.
I build upon the work of Charles Moore, Patricia Corcoran, Kelly Jazvac, and Kirsty Robertson to complete a political ecology of "plastiglomerate," a geological conglomeration of plastic marine debris, volcanic basalt, sand, and shells first identified in Kaʻū, Hawai’i. Plastiglomerate has been proposed as an informal marker of the Anthropocene epoch, symbolizing the entanglements of nature and culture. I collected and examined the material's vitality from the remote Kamilo Beach, exploring how it embodies the social, political, and ecological forces that shape it. Plastiglomerate is neither inert nor apolitical; it is a fusion of occupation, colonialism, the petrochemical industry, militarization, and broader structures of the discard society, offering a stark reminder of the complex legacies that persist in both physical and symbolic form.