This fall, in collaboration with WEAD, Gallery Route One in Point Reyes Station will be adding to the slate of extraction exhibitions with “From Extraction to Restoration and Regeneration.” They write in their call for submissions: “Extraction can cover a wide range of subjects, from mono-cropping of palm oil at the expense of diverse tropical forests; to massive open pit mines; to indiscriminate mining of the sea with vast driftnets; to extracting microbial life from the soil via industrial agricultural methods.”
My Proposal, June 4, 2021
Big snarls of fishing gear: ropes, knots, nets, and monofilament wash up onto Kehoe Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore. These snarls AKA “Ghost Nets” are pernicious entanglements of lost commercial fishing gear. Birds, fish, and marine mammals get caught in this silent floating debris —trapped in what is called “ghost fishing.”
When you think of fishing you might harken back to a pole, a hook, with a worm dropped in a stream. Fond memories of catching and eating or catching and releasing. When you think of commercial fishing you probably think of giant nets swooping up a school of fish. You’re not wrong! Over 80% of fish are caught via nets.
Industrial fishing nets with lengths up to 7 miles, catch and kill unintended species—bycatch fish, sea birds, turtles, and whales—en masse. In addition to removing large number of fish, many large-scale fishing practices also destroy aquatic habitat by dredging or seafloor trawling that scoops up everything that will be used along with much that will be discarded. This is extraction on an monumental scale. Fishing gear can be even more destructive when it becomes lost or forgotten in the water because it continues to ensnare animals that aren’t being harvested for use.
This is still a work-in-progress as I cull and curate my way through the twisted mess. Depending on the gallery space, selected pieces of hawsers and knots would be hung singularly or in a group in an arrangement in response to exhibition area. Ideally the ropes would be suspended from the ceiling, away from the wall, so that the cast shadows would contribute to the ominous dance that is both looming and lyrical.
SWAG 66h x 52w x 11d
Necklace 41h x 11w x3d
Black Knot 54h x15w x9d
SWAG and Necklace 66h x 52w x 20d
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The Plasticene Discontinuity 