Join the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston and the South Carolina Aquarium for the kickoff of SEA CHANGE as we host an opening reception for the exhibitions “Aurora Robson: The Tide is High” and “Chris Jordan: Midway.” Enjoy food provided by Whole Foods Market and refreshments from our friends at Icebox.

SEA CHANGE is a series of exhibitions and programs presented in collaboration with the South Carolina Aquarium to raise awareness of our enormous plastic waste problem and the detrimental effects on our planet.

For her exhibition at the Halsey Institute, Aurora Robson will create a site-specific installation using only plastic from discarded bottles and other objects to fill the Deborah A. Chalsty Gallery. Robson’s installation will reveal the potential of working with post-consumer plastic to create new objects—a key strategy in helping to intercept the stream of plastic waste that ultimately reaches our oceans.

As an artist who explores ecological issues, Robson works primarily with plastic debris, transforming quotidian waste into aesthetic objects of beauty and reflection. Under her meticulous manipulation, the plastic materials take on an organic quality, thus connecting back to nature. Many of her works take on forms resembling otherworldly organisms that exist on the ocean floor; in this way, her work is further associated with the sea. 

Robson’s process references a legacy of using found objects as media for sculpture. By transforming everyday trash into works of art, her sculpture forces viewers to consider their own relationship with plastic materials and waste.

Aurora Robson will also have a piece exhibited at the South Carolina Aquarium.

On view simultaneously with Aurora Robson’s installation, Chris Jordan’s photographs depict the magnitude of humanity’s consumption and its impact on the environment. His work sends a bold message about unconscious behaviors in our everyday lives, providing a platform for rich conversation and education around issues of ocean health, ecosystem interconnectedness, and mass consumption, especially of plastics.

The exhibition will present photographs from Jordan’s body of work entitled “Midway.” On Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands more than

2,000 miles from the nearest continent, the detritus of our mass consumption surfaces in an astonishing place: inside the stomachs of countless dead baby albatrosses. The nesting chicks are fed lethal quantities of plastic by their parents, who mistake the floating trash for food as they forage over the vast polluted Pacific Ocean. The Halsey Institute will present the world premiere of ALBATROSS, Jordan’s feature-length film on the subject, as part of the public programming for this exhibition.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SEA CHANGE

http://halsey.cofc.edu/exhibitions/upcoming/