You Are What You Concede

East coast pollution meets west coast run-off as Brooklyn maker Amanda Patenaude teams up with local activist Heather Bowling, for a bicoastal collaboration and community engagement, resulting in a site-specific installation of finely crafted trash. These upcycling artists pursue such participatory projects to raise social awareness of the direct flow of our pre-packaged consumerism through the slick plastic waste stream to ride forever in the currents of our oceans.

In collaboration with local organization, Back to Natives, they collected materials through a series of community clean up events. They are very grateful for the many hangs that helped extract countless pieces of invasive trash from nearby Santiago Creek. These abandoned bits of detritus are transformed here into an immersive self-reflective environment.

The viewers and wider community are seduced into interactive collaboration by trashcrafted gifts and mementos within their oceanic installation. Through the fun activities in the hands-on DIY trashcrafting lab, guests learn to recreate their waste into wonder. The creative energy in this exhibition is an expression of both artists' common drive to communicate, educate, and inspire thought.

- Ben Wright