By Katrīna Tračuma – Click here to discover Katrīna work here.
Amidst the methodical disarray of collecting, transporting, arranging, connecting, and building the curated plastic trash mountain – that became my costume and props for the WHAT DO? WHERE AMBULANCE? performance as part of Riga Performance Art festival ‘Starptelpa’ at Zuzeum – I had friend and fellow artist Mika Solomon visit my temporary studio.
Located on the third floor of the walk-up building of The Centre of Creative Learning (CCL) called “Annas 2” in Riga, the square-ish shaped room is a warm and isolated box, illuminated by the light shining through the trees of the Annas street, through one relatively small and narrow window in the center of the wall that is facing the entryway. There is a green chalkboard centered on the right wall just as you walk in. I can lock the door, and feel myself escaping into a world made up of repetitive actions – rummaging through at times sticky, whiffy, and mucky residue of our consumption. Gluing, stapling, and tying them all together. As long as it holds. My affections declared towards the following aesthetic selections of discarded detritus:
- Single use plastic packaging – from crisps, yogurts, chocolates, rice, pasta, candy;
- Broken plastic children’s toys – dolls, building blocks, pool floats and inflatables;
- Unusable polyester fabric objects – a tent with no stakes, a long piece of offcut pink fabric;
- Lots of ripped plastic bags – of all sizes and thicknesses;
All in bright and vibrant colors – yellow, red, blue, green, orange, purple. Neon at times, at best!
No black. No brown. No white. No gray, no cream, no nude – no plain transparent.
Overall, the entire process took over three months – and I enlisted the help of seven households and three educational institutions to collect the needed amount of plastic trash. A special mention goes to all those who collected orderly catalogs of their *cleaned* waste; and to the one person that contributed upwards of 60% to the entirety of the collection.
During the performance I had lost all perception of time.
The accumulated assemblage weighed me down, as I dragged us to the recycling bin at the rear of the building, once the performance came to a close. The finale was broadcast by playing the Recycle Mantra by Billy X. Curmano.
REduce
REuse
REcycle
or DIEEEEE
Throwing myself into the container, entangled with all my wares, I wished to be REborn into someONE more capable of making the right choices. SomeONE whose choices mattered more. Yet, it is not the ONE individual that should wear the burden of all our plastic pollution, but rather the greed ridden corporations must be held accountable and be responsible.
Could a, would a, should a…
A single cell organism is evolved when it successfully disposes of its own waste. Humans are multicellular organisms that have yet to learn how to do that.
*All featured images are analogue photographs courtesy of artist Mika Solomon.
By Katrīna Tračuma – Click here to discover Katrīna work here.
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