PORTRAIT

Mixed Media installation from salvaged plastic waste from landfill, 2024

This double-sided portrait represents both the problem of consumption and the solution.  The material used is plastic waste that was collected from the sea representing ghost nets (30-50 percent of all plastic waste in oceans) and at the same time represents fungi and bacteria such as aspergillus tubingensis, fusarum solani and pichia pastoris  that are successful at bio-remediation of plastic. The fungus produces an enzyme to break down the plastic called cutinase, which has the dual functions of esterase and lipase that acts on efficient degradation of microplastics.

We have come to a time where humans affect the environment more than it affects us. Even if we do not participate in the process that is happening. Nature finds a way for symbiosis even in the most inhospitable environments and finds solutions of adaptation and survival. If nature can find a way on a biotope scale, solution is possible on a global scale.