An installation of one family’s accumulation of plastic and a virtual reality experience reflecting the impact of our throw away culture on the ocean.
Opening Reception: Friday, February 28 2020, 6-9 pm
Saturday, February 29 2020, by appointment
Sunday, March 1 2020, 1-5 pm
March 8th 2020, 2 – 5 pm
Wayfarers Gallery, 1109 DeKalb Ave, Brooklyn
Plastic Swim is an interactive virtual reality experience and pool of plastic waste consumed by the artist and her family in one year. The project juxtaposes a fun summer beach party with the North Atlantic garbage patch. In the VR artwork, the viewer walks on a New York City beach before swimming in a wondrous aquatic world dense with swirling plastic. Starr created Plastic Swim at the Technology, Engineering, Art and Music (TEAM) Lab at Harvestworks in Manhattan, while studying under Independent Programmer, Danielle McPhatter. Music for the project is donated by Claire Evans, lead singer for the pop band Yacht.
This pop-up exhibit at Wayfarers Gallery is timed to raise awareness about the new Bag Waste Reduction Law, which takes effect March 1, 2020, and prohibits the distribution of plastic carryout bags by certain retailers in New York state.
Meredith Starr’s artwork is based on data she observes in her personal life and an investigation of social issues. She fuses science with artifacts of our humanity, exploring themes such as desire, memory, identity politics and ecology. In Starr’s installations, she creates a multi-sensory circuit with an accumulation of material and new media. She strives to create interactivity and give visibility to hidden patterns around us.
Starr is a full time professor of visual arts at SUNY Suffolk County Community College and is a regional coordinator for the FATE (Foundations in Art Theory and Education) organization. She is the 2019 recipient of FATE’s Emerging Educator Award and the OPEN SUNY Online Ambassador Award. She recently exhibited Plastic Lake at Art Lab Tokyo in Japan and her drawings have been published in Space Out: Memory and Tool Book. She is a member of the Wayfarers Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn and has shown internationally in cities such as the Hague, Hong Kong, and Seoul, and nationally in Chicago, DC, Los Angeles, and New York.
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