by Kelly Jimenez & Alejandro Franco
Bellow you will find some projects produced during the last two years since we started making stained glass art out of single-use plastic.
On our first attempt, we went for recreating scenes of nature overtaking human infrastructures. This imagery was based in a hypothetical scenario of a mass human extinction. Basically the way we imagine it by the time this plastic will decomposed.
On this exhibition, we approached the idea of depicting our planet in its physical form from different perspectives. We made a mercator projection map which is a controversial map (distorts the size of countries making bipoc countries look smaller) with great use for navigation, but often use as a general map in school to teach children about the world. We also created a medium size version of the globe and took it around and photographed in places once occupied by humans and currently disregarded. We also made a color coded map of the plastic distribution in the oceans that shows the amount of pieces/sq kms. we ultimately wanted to contrast these pristine works made out of a pollutant material, with the state of decay of the space.
This monumental poster inspired in the work of John Audubon, was created to be display in the lobby of the Angad Art hotel.
Our intention was best described by Vanessa Rudloff.
“The lives of Jimenez and Franco mirror those of the migrant birds they have exalted to larger than life. As Colombian immigrants, they lived in Florida for many years only to continue to migrate to the Midwest looking for a different set of resources like birds traveling across the world with an equivalent search.
It is in resources that their work most strongly speaks to the viewer. Each piece is constructed from cardboard and single-use plastics to spotlight the anthropogenic effects on the earth and it’s wildlife. Like birds gathering what they find around them, Jimenez and Franco use what is most abundantly available in our modern world”.
Anatomy is a biology study of different species. We depict the marvelous complexities of their bodies with the intention to draw attention to the overpopulation of micro plastics, which could permeates our bodies with carcinogenic properties or damage our DNA. The side effects of the oil industry are yet to be determined.
By spending all this time and effort to recover an undervalued material through labor, we hope to make an allegory of the effort we need to make to preserve a healthy ecosystem, one where we can feel hopeful and proud, an essential desire so often taken for granted
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