postcards from the Atlantic 2023

postcards from the Atlantic begins with the wide sprawl of fossil-fuel-based debris washed ashore along the coastline of Cape Cod Bay. Found, collected, studied, and cataloged during the artist’s fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, these remnants of contemporary life—frayed rope, bleached buoys, medical supplies, unidentifiable jugs, hygienic products, toys, and fragments of fishing gear—speak to both the ubiquity and anonymity of marine plastic pollution.
Captured through high-resolution flatbed scans, each object is suspended in a deep, dark void, resembling either oceanic depths or the silent expanse of low Earth orbit. These scans transform the debris into luminous, uncanny artifacts—haunting and strange. The resulting images function as both an archive and an alternative archaeological record: a material chronicle of human fabrication and neglect.

This selection of 12 prints is drawn from a larger digital archive of over one hundred images, each produced by scanning a small portion of the collected debris. In this process of image-making, the work blurs the boundaries between documentation and portraiture. What was once dismissed as trash is recontextualized as evidence of consumption, of environmental crisis, and of what we leave behind. Plastic becomes a mirror, reflecting both our past and a projected future, offering a portrait of what may ultimately outlive us.