Plastopia

Plastopia The moment you have found something you are already lost; it is the anchor to which the mind clings. ― Jiddu Krishnamurti My Master of Fine Arts research has been primarily concerned with exploring my core belief in the interconnectedness of humankind, nature and the universe. In recent years, I have created artwork that highlights humanity’s connection to nature and the universe. This viewpoint has been largely shaped by my spiritual and artistic development, advanced through my investigations of a wide range of philosophies and religions. It is this utopian desire that has guided and informed my artwork over the past eight years and, in particular, the past two years of working towards my MFA degree. However, recently I began to question some of my assumptions regarding interconnectedness, noticing contradictions about presumed truths that I held. I thought I had discovered an all-encompassing mathematical theorem in fractals and in the Fibonacci sequence that proved interconnection to “all that is” in a spiritual sense. I slowly began to notice that I was, in fact, lost, as the spiritual teacher Kristnamurti suggests in the above quote. These insights have led me to reconsider my initial intention behind interconnectivity as the core idea in my work and to challenge this impulse with my culminating installation for the MFA degree, Plastopia. The world of Plastopia is not utopian, but dystopian, with obscene amounts of plastic refuse and mirrored-Mylar® creating an environment for disturbing, mutant creatures constructed of plastic and submerged within a multi-coloured, dimly-lit plastic landscape. This weird, off-kilter, futuristic world is my response to the revelations I experienced regarding my belief in interconnectivity that I made in the course of obtaining my MFA degree. In the following paper, I will trace the development of my artwork and ideas from just before I entered the graduate program up to the creation of my final exhibition, Plastopia