some things last a long time 2022

Exhibited at Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA

some things last a long time is a two-part installation developed during a seven-month fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Rooted in the specific ecological and material landscape of Cape Cod, the project explores cycles of accumulation, transformation, and return through site-responsive drawing and participatory arrangement.
The first part of the installation consists of spatial drawings rendered directly onto the gallery walls and floor using squid ink harvested locally and processed in the studio. These ephemeral drawings initially appear as faint shadows—suggestive of both familiar and indeterminate forms—and gradually emerge as clearer shapes. Their contours are derived from found marine plastic debris collected along the shores of the Northern Atlantic. Suspended between absence and presence, the drawings act as ghostly impressions of material refuse, merging organic matter with petrochemical residue.
The second part of the exhibition features the plastic debris itself, presented in the gallery space according to a collaborative logic. Two friends were invited to arrange the objects using a simple set of open-ended instructions. Their interpretation brings a human dimension to the act of ordering, offering a counterpoint to the systematizing frameworks often used in scientific or museological presentations.
Following the exhibition, and in partnership with the Marine Debris & Plastics Program at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, the collected debris was redistributed to local fishermen and artists—returning these materials to the community as both resource and residue. The project ultimately reflects on what persists—materially, environmentally, and emotionally—and how meaning can shift as objects move through hands, contexts, and time.