LIVE THROUGH THIS, 2026
When considering ocean conservation, society is capable of great achievements, yet despite our high ideals, some systems are simply beyond our capacity to sustain. In imagining the future of the Port of Los Angeles, I anticipate mixed results—welcoming positive breakthroughs while bracing for compromised standards.
Ultimately, I like to think Mother Nature will take control. She will Live Through This by developing her own modifications to clean and protect the port. In my reimagined future, a feminist Mother Nature sews, staples, and animates the shells, skins, and debris of mollusks to create a hybrid filtration system. These mutated creatures purposefully inhale silt and pollution, expelling pearls in return.
The resulting artwork is simultaneously abject and decadent in both coloration and materiality. Keloid, scabby, caramel-rust splotches of crystallized salt cling to creamy, milky wedding-dress satins, silks, and laces sourced from secondhand stores, all blanketed in craft-store pearls. This soft, off-white palette evokes the tragic bleaching of coral reefs while serving as a neutral screen for Going Fishing, the aquatic video overlay by Jennifer Gunlock. The secondhand wedding dresses recall discarded oaths and the fragile renewal of promises. The craft-store pearls are aggressively opalescent and overdone; though they nod to an optimistic future, these plastic baubles ultimately have no place in an ecologically conscious world.
To be included in the exhibition Built on Water at Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA, June 27 - August 15, 2026
