Black Friday

Headlines today proclaim,

“Amid the pandemic, Black Friday takes a new shape.”

I won’t be hitting the mall today for some of that Black Friday frenzy shopping but I did succumb to the enticing online offer of 15% off on Glu-Stix and bought a quantity of Tuf-Tak Black sticks to use as I put the finishing touches on GUSHER. 

Black may mean the total absence of light but in all its various shades there is still range of color including Ebony, Taupe, Davy’s Gray, Charcoal, Black Olive, Onyx, Jet, Raisin Black, Eerie Black, Licorice, Vanta Black. The variations are especially visible when sorting though the boxes of black plastic.

The dense black of Louise Nevelson’s monochromatic massive sculptures are an inspiration. But, plastic that has been buffeted by its time on the sand and in the sea can gain a luxurious and differing patina. The panels for the base of my GUSHER derrick are a study of shades.

Louise Nevelson “Big Black” 1963

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GUSHER

GUSHER = an oil well from which oil flows out profusely without being pumped. = an effusive display of plastic.

GUSHER will be displayed July-August-September, 2021 on the exhibition platform in the Fairfax Parkade parking lot. It can be viewed by driving by the corner of Bolinas and Broadway, Fairfax, CA or on foot as you wander through town. The Parkade platform is an open-air site for exhibitions coordinated by the Town of Fairfax, Department of Recreation, Arts and Culture.

GUSHER is a sculptural interpretation of an oil derrick covered in black plastic collected from Kehoe Beach by Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang. The monochromatic monolithic composed of fragments of black plastic will upon closer inspection, reveal identifiable, everyday plastic objects — the substrate of our use-it and toss-it habits.

GUSHER is an exploration of my personal extraction story that begins with my Uncle Carl’s EUREKA moment with his oil well in Montana and my own EUREKA moment when I discovered that plastic could be THE art material to express the catastrophe of our petroleum-based consumer culture.

Montana looms large in my memories and in my imagination. Almost every summer during my childhood our family would visit my Grandfather Bouska in Great Falls, MT and in Sun River, MT where he had a small ranch. My Uncle Carl Roget never tired of telling the story about the geyser of oil that blew (gushed) on his property in Willard near Baker, MT. There was exploratory drilling and the mounting of a rig but nothing ever came of it. One might think that the dashing of his strike-it-rich dream would have been a disappointment, but my uncle, who was always a glass half-full guy, loved telling about the thrill of that moment; of that blast of oil. It was a highlight in my uncle’s long life (103 years).

When my uncle passed away, the mineral and oil rights went to my Dad, who later had the title transferred to my sister and me. For years Shell Oil leased the rights but with the fluctuating market they finally gave up the contract sometime in the mid-1970’s.

When making the connection between oil and plastic, I had no idea how close to home and family that connection might be. Now I am on the case to discover more about the early days in Eastern Montana and how the discovery of oil and extraction shaped that region. And, how my collecting of plastic washing ashore on Kehoe Beach, has shaped my artistic life.

Many people are unaware of the equation of oil=plastic but every year thousands of barrels of oil and natural gas are extracted and used to make plastic. Offshore oil- drilling, tanker oil spills, tar balls washed ashore and plastic, lots of it, are all part of the problem of fossil fuels, petroleum, and plastic pollution.

It is my hope that GUSHER will encourage a conversation about how plastic has pervaded every aspect of our lives and a discussion about how we can cap the well and put a control value on our indiscriminate use.

GUSHER is participating in Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss 2021 a multimedia, multi-venue, cross-border art intervention that will investigate the extractive industry in all of its forms from mining and drilling to the reckless exploitation of water, soil, trees, marine life, and other natural resources.

https://www.extractionart.org

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