Conversation and Exhibition Preview | Castaway: The Afterlife of Plastic

TRES
ilana boltvinik. Instituto de Artes Plásticas, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico; 2016 Gardner Fellow in Photography
rodrigo viñas. Independent artist; 2016 Gardner Fellow in Photography

In conversation with Madeline Murphy Turner, Emily Rauh Pulitzer Curatorial Fellow in Contemporary Drawings, Harvard Art Museums

Castaway: The Afterlife of Plastic by the art collective TRES, is an art-research project that investigates plastic’s enduring presence in global ecosystems. Since 2016, TRES has searched for and photographed marine debris and plastic that has washed up on the Australian shores of Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania. Using photography, maps, and collected artifacts, the collective documents how plastic castaways of contemporary culture become embedded in landscapes—often unnoticed yet ever-present. Castaway’s visual poetry, mimicry, and humor aim to prompt reflection on humanity’s materiality, use, and deep entanglement with plastic. At the same time, the project speculates about new forms of coexistence in which life and synthetic matter evolve together in unexpected ways.

Presented in Spanish with English translation. A reception and exhibition preview will follow in the galleries of the Peabody Museum.

Free and open to the public. Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

Advance registration recommended.

Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture.