Multi-media artist Alejandro Durán has been inspiring change with his thought-provoking works which quite literally turn trash into treasure in Mexico’s Caribbean. Durán is originally from Mexico City, but is based in Brooklyn, New York, right now and has been rocking the city with his Washed Up series. To make these works he uses the international debris that washed up along the coastline of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere in Mexico. With these bits and pieces he creates environmental installations which are then photographed.
Art in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere
Durán has managed to trace his now famous trash to fifty-three nations and territories across the world’s six continents. The figure is rising. All of this garbage has made it to the shores of the protected biosphere in the Mexican Caribbean as a result of the ocean currents and ends up on the beaches of this UNESCO World Heritage site. Durán has found a way to put this trash to good use, however, and groups various items by color for impact in their site-specific forms. His art imitates nature, using things like bottles and shoes to make the forms of algae, fruit, roots, and waves to make a point about the exponential invasion the environment is experiencing right now.
Trash Sculptures
The real hook of this work is the contrast between the beauty of the works and the horrifying implications for the world’s Oceans. The purpose here is so much deeper than running a small clean-up while making surreal artworks. It’s about the disposable culture which we run right now.
The works, and the photo-series, highlight the predicament that modern consumerism has created for us; this garbage has washed up on federally protected, undeveloped land… truly no place is safe from the negative effects we are having upon the environment. This project is both a statement and an example; it’s helping to alter a landscape that has been steadily filling with unwanted plastic, but it’s also reminding us that consumption is a necessary evil which must be limited, not a lifestyle to be celebrated.
You can learn more about the Washed Up project and get involved by visiting Alejandro Duran’s website: https://www.alejandroduran.com/
