Learning Curves, 2021, welded plastic debris (high density polyethylene), 7’6" x 8’2" x 10’7" feet/inches

Abundance and Destruction Find Cultural Impact: Aurora Robson’s Collaborative Approach to Intersecting the Plastic Waste Stream
By Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Aurora Robson’s work acts as a meditative interception into the plastic waste stream, natural forms, and their relationships to her recurring childhood nightmares. Repurposing plastics from a wide range of sources, she tunes into an otherwise destructive, wasteful and abundant material resource. To build community and collective purpose, she founded Project Vortex in 2009. Project Vortex is an artist collective innovating with plastic debris, “as an effort to help broaden creative stewardship initiatives in art and academic settings” with artists, designers and architects internationally. Their collaborative exhibition, “Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers,” is on view at the School of Visual Arts in New York City through December 15, and presents a “rethinking and reinvention of plastic debris."

The Great Indoors, 2008, plastic debris, paint, solar powered LEDs and hardware, 44 x 44 x 18 feet

Aurora, you have described your work surrounding the intersection between your subconscious and environmental destruction as “about subjugating negativity and shifting trajectories.” Where does the personal and the political intersect for you and through your work?  

To me, the personal is political—there is no separation. As a woman, a mother and an artist, and especially in the political climate in the USA right now, every choice we make is not only vital but a gift.

Plastic pollution has an overwhelming, all encompassing, suffocating effect on all living organisms. My childhood nightmares shared these qualities.

We have been spilling a perfectly good art supply into places it has no business being. This is no different from many other self destructive products and personal choices humans have made throughout history (lead paint or cigarettes are other examples). Plastic is a petroleum-based material, a by-product of the fossil fuel industry. It is a laughable enterprise if you think about working with plastic debris for sculpture in terms of sequestering it to keep it from doing harm, but art does not need to have a literal or direct impact to be effective. Art is the basis for the development of cultural and societal norms, therefore its ultimate impact can not be measured by ordinary units of measure or on a finite timeline.

And to make this cultural impact, you have integrated junk mail, tubing, and a variety of plastic refuse to create “plastic waste interceptions.” What do your aesthetic choices intend to relay about intervening in the plastic waste stream?

Overall, I am working to reveal various false perceptions of value that have been wreaking havoc on all life forms. I like to think of my aesthetic choices as an exercise in anti-discrimination, with matter as a metaphor. There is an interplay between recognizing that matter matters, which it does to me in that I prefer to work with material that has been discarded, disregarded and discriminated against. I avoid virgin materials. In a sense, this approach makes the material immaterial. I am illustrating that it is about the “doing” and not so much the “thing,” or that value and scarcity don’t really have anything in common. 

Be Like Water, 2010, 80,000 plastic bottle caps and 9000 discarded plastic (PET) bottles collected by students at 7 public and private schools in Philadelphia, 25 x 120 x 14 feet. Funded by the City of Philadelphia Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Skybox, Curator Eileen Tognini and other private donors.

I imagine that this “doing” is also reflected in your gathering practices and process. What does this process look like?

The collecting of materials is the easiest part, it is increasingly everywhere and plastic objects are constantly morphing due to their “plasticity.”

I have many sources and approaches for collecting materials—and they are constantly proliferating. People want to sequester plastic debris because it is one of the most problematic wide spread toxic waste issues. People send me plastic debris from their homes, (bottle caps, bread tags, and all manner of objects). This really moves me as there is a thoughtful energy, which is very powerful because it transforms debris into a gift at the onset. I try to honor that act by perpetuating the motion. I also work with clean up organizations who conduct clean ups of rivers, shores, parks, road sides, etc… and use material they have collected. I have also partnered with schools, transfer stations, corporations, and recycling centers.

When possible, I love to work in urban environments with people who are collecting bottles out of the trash and gutters to take them to redemption centers for money. When I do, I facilitate a pay increase for them while making their journeys less arduous and lengthy by arranging pick up locations closer to them. 

Wow, you have such a range of sources and an (unfortunate) abundance! Do the collection sources and context affect your work process?

I always try to respond to the environment I am working in and honor it. I like to integrate local materials and ethos to add layers of relevance to the community that the work is intended to serve. Canada has very little pollution and litter compared to the US. It is always an interesting contrast to go between these countries—but often just because you can’t see the problem, doesn't mean it isn’t there. The majority of plastic, when submerged in water for any length of time, will sink. This is part of the issue that I think makes it most appropriate for artists. I think our job is to make something that is not visible, visible and to use our visionary skills to envision a sustainable and habitable world that supports life.

Through Project Vortex, you’ve extended this work process to create collective impact as well. What inspired you to begin this collective? And what has the collective work process allowed you to do?

Initially, I started Project Vortex because I was feeling increasingly hopeless about plastic pollution and about whether it would ever be utilized as an art material outside of my studio. I felt like I was alone, insane and quite small. I was worried that emotionally, I wouldn’t be able to sustain this “sustainable practice”. It was depressing to see more and more shifts towards plastic packaging and more and more artists buying new plastic objects to use in their work to talk about this, but so indirectly, with such lack of self reflection or accountability.

I needed to find other people who were working with this material without biases. People who were focused on it in order to add to the volume, richness, efficacy and diversity in the dialogue and action that all need amplification and expansion. I found that the more I looked for other artists the more I found them. It became more and more inspiring and valuable as a resource for me and for educators and the other members of the collective. Plus, through the development of this collective, more resources and opportunities could be shared and distributed within the collective, making us stronger as individuals and as a group. 

Poster for “Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices With Polymers," through December 15, 2024, featuring Project Vortex Artists, includes works by ecoartspace members Ellen Driscoll, Natalya Khorover, Pam Longobardi and Bryan Northup).

With your current group exhibition, “Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers” at The School of Visual Arts Gallery in Manhattan, you showcase the fruits of this collective strength. What do you hope to inspire in both students and visitors alike in your approaches to sustainability and earth health?

Plasticulture highlights brilliant approaches to working with plastic debris with the goal being that students and visitors find inspiration, joy and hope, at a time when that is particularly important in a country with such a divided population. It is an invitation. My hope is that it is the first exhibition of its kind. It has a message that is clear, to the point, inclusive, and without a doubt, of service to life itself.

Each of the works featured embodies a different story or aspect to the plastic pollution issue that is relevant to every living creature on the planet, not just the 1% of us who enjoy the joke of a duct taped banana selling for $6.2 million. Though the exhibition only includes about a dozen of the amazing artists from Project Vortex, it is the antithesis to irreverent art that is merely about art. Despite the abysmal nature of the material that is at its focus it is powerful and uplifting. Plasticulture is about a burden that weighs on all life on earth right now. It is about what humans are doing to the ecosystem and what we can do about it. 

Thank you, Aurora, for reminding us of both our responsibility to the planet and each other through the impact of our work.