Muddle of Littoral Artifacts, 2015

Muddle of Littoral Artifacts is a collection of suspended small sculptures made from fired and unfired mud collected along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay in Richmond, CA, as well as debris and flotsam collected in the same area, coated in the aforementioned mud.

The Richmond Bay shoreline is comprised of a deeply entangled matrix of human generated-trash, and plant-, animal- and mineral-generated materials. Official signage designates the area both as a “natural resource protection area” with its rich ecosystem, and as a “hazardous materials area” due to past industrial and chemical waste dumping, and mercury deposits from the gold mining era. The mud contains organic matter from decomposing plants, animals, and rocks, supporting a thriving diversity of species; it also contains waste from dumping, historical gold mining, and local industry, including mercury, copper, nickel, pesticides, PCBs, dioxins, cyanide, selenium and a stew of pharmaceuticals. The mud is a both and—both a foundation for a rich habitat, and a toxic testament to the bay’s human history. In this work, the mud performs as a literal matrix of the area’s histories, and metaphorically as mythic prime material—its malleability latent with infinite futures.

Installed as part of The 45th Annual University of California, Berkeley Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition, at the the Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA, USA.