joyschendledecker_dpx3o0 | Joy Schendledecker

This is one of a series of “Garbage Globes” I’ve made since 2019–from 1.75″ ornaments to 6″ diameter beauties. They are melancholy, anti-sentimental keepsakes of our beach town on the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, and of the global petro-plastics crisis.

I’m not the first person to think of making something like this. After I had the idea, I did some internet searching and discovered Max Liboiron and Discard Studies (https://maxliboiron.com/) –two of my favorite discoveries, ever. I also found someone on (I think) deviantart.com, but I can’t remember who and can’t find her again. (Send me a message if you are her or know of her work, or of other similar work!)

Garbage Globe, 2019/20 Globe: feral plastics and beach debris in glass globe, water, sand, glitter; base: “Santa Cruz Waves” magazine pages, hot glue

In 2017 and 2018, I spent a lot of time picking up garbage from local beaches. Often these were family walks, and my people got tired of my constant scanning and stooping to collect.

I started to think of each collection as a diary of a walk. At the same time, I was researching marine debris, the great garbage patch, and plastiglomerates–the world’s first human-nature hybrid rock.

It was a challenge for me to not “rainbow” each fossil as I formed it from discards and hot glue. I wanted to step back from my tendency to beautify and allow for these objects to be ugly.

Future Fossils, 2017; beached feral plastics, hot glue

These Future Fossils are a speculative fiction: I was imagining that they would be found on Santa Cruz beaches in 50 or 100 or more years, like plastiglomerates were discovered on Kamilo Beach on the Big Island of Hawai’i in 2006. As climate change intensifies and the petro-plastics industry digs in and expands its production, that’s where we’re headed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastiglomerate