False Food

In lieu of proliferating horrific images of ocean plastic pollution, I felt it important to make something transformative—something that wouldn’t deaden conscience but rather raise it. False Food seeks to bring awareness to plastic pollution and the imperiled ecosystem through a paradoxical presentation of plastic artifacts, fatally ingested by albatross, in aesthetically constructed images. Each year, eight million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans. Harmful effects from our “plastic footprint” are many. Unlike organic debris, plastic doesn’t biodegrade. It photo-degrades into smaller and smaller pieces, releasing toxins such as BPA until it becomes a soup of molecular plastic. At this size, it enters the food chain and we become the albatross. I believe in sustaining hope and imagination in the face of a great challenge. With False Food, it is my intention to create paradoxical beauty that sustains the dialogue about a tragedy of our own making.