Our planet is quite literally drowning in plastic. While in 1950 we produced 2 million tons per year, since then, annual production has increased nearly 200-fold, reaching 381 million tons in 2015. This is roughly equivalent to the mass of two-thirds of the world’s population.
But while most of us turn a blind eye towards the waste we produce, Aurora Robson draws attention to it. Exploring plastic debris as a viable art material, Robson’s sculptures and installations are made entirely of plastic.
“Plastic debris has ‘plasticity’ built into it,” explained Robson in an interview with Mistake House. “It also has archival integrity built into it. From an environmental standpoint, this design flaw is catastrophic, but from an artist’s perspective it makes the material worthy of greater exploration.”
According to Robson, while we might think of art and garbage as polar opposites, they are, in fact, the two things we leave behind: “Once transformed into art, debris becomes the antithesis of itself,” she points out.
Describing herself as an intersectional environmental artist, Robson extracts plastic debris from its problematic destructive fate and utilizes its potential to become a source for enjoyment, therefore reclaiming it.
Her work, exhibited both locally and internationally in museums and galleries, has also won Robson awards. Amongst her accolades, Robson is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Sculpture, a TED/Lincoln Re-Imagine Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Art Work Grant. More importantly, her work is a call for action.
