An Ecosystem of Excess
Inspired by the massive waste production of the Anthropocene, Pinar Yoldaş explores a future of plastic altered marine life in her 2014 multiwork exhibition An Ecosystem of Excess. Yoldaş specifically focuses on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, one of the five unfathomably large collections of plastic in the oceans. This gyre - the size of central Europe - was discovered by Captain Charles Moore who described the finding as “plastic soup” (aksioma).
“According to the “primordial soup” theory, life on earth began four billion years ago in the oceans, when inorganic matter turned into organic molecules. Today, the oceans have become a plastic soup. Seeing this as a site of exchange between organic and synthetic matter, of fusion between nature and culture, Pinar Yoldas asks what life forms would emerge from the primeval sludge of today’s oceans.”
Image courtesy of https://www.pinaryoldas.info/WORK/Ecosystem-of-Excess-2014
Pinar Yoldaş grew up in Turkey, but upon arriving in the US, she was immediately fascinated by the excessive consumption of the typical American. She noticed her own waste production increased, and the garbage that caught her attention most was plastic. Turning to her background in scientific research, Yoldaş set out to hypothesize an entire ecosystem that could emerge from contemporary oceans as toxic man-made sludge.
Pinar Yoldaş’ background in science has inspired many of her works, including The Very Loud Chamber Orchestra of Endangered Species. This previous piece of hers is a collection of animal skulls, each attached to a rod that lets them hover above the viewer. The skulls’ jaws open and close as the sounds of 14 endangered animals shriek above the music, a final lament as their species disappears. Many of her works share a common theme of the human impact on the natural world. Human consumption has taken away habitats and resources, while polluting the remainder. These actions are killing many species at a rate so drastic scientists are calling it the 6th mass extinction.
The first plastic was invented in 1907, but the material wasn’t widely used until WWII and the following mass consumerism beginning in the 1950s. Now, 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans annually. Due to the synthetic polymer nature of plastic, it does not decompose into natural compounds. Every piece of plastic ever made still exists. Much of it ends up in the ocean where it breaks into extremely small pieces called microplastics that animals eat. The reaction of plastic with the sun also releases chemicals like pesticides or dyes into the ocean which harms marine life.
An Ecosystem of Excess was inspired by the discovery of a fungus capable of digesting plastics and envisioned an ecosystem that not only survives the plastic soup, but evolves to thrive in it. The fungus, Pestalotiopsis microspora, breaks down and digests polyurethane. Since then, bacteria have been found that are also able to break down plastic. Since microorganisms are the base of ecosystems, Yoldaş imagines future species able to survive the polluted ocean waters. In the wake of irreparable damage, she turns to speculation, marking current marine life as beyond saving.
Image courtesy of https://www.pinaryoldas.info/WORK/Ecosystem-of-Excess-2014
Unlike other art made to address this issue, Yoldas does not depict ocean life interactions with plastic now but in a distant future. Her exhibition is bitterly sad as it implies the extinction of hundreds, if not thousands of oceanic species. Yet, by designing An Ecosystem of Excess as realistically as possible, it presents a strange optimism because it means while humanity never fixed its mistake, life was able to find a way despite the toxic conditions.
The exhibition includes multiple pieces, beginning with a glass container of turbulent plastic soup. The plastic pieces boil in a large glass measuring beaker swirling in the water like a rumbling heart in the center of the exhibition. Other parts of the exhibition include bird feathers which have taken on the pantones of popular brand colors, like coca-cola red or dasani blue. Mounted on the wall are a series of diagrams and data depicting research and speculative drawings in this plastosphere system. Later in another showing of the works, she added a video that lists data of plastic waste found in the oceans while generated specs representing plastic float by.
Yoldas also designed oceanic insects based on research published on the increase of pelagic insects who can now live in the oceans due to solid plastic surfaces to lay eggs. These insects are placed in glass vials and vary in size and shape. They are either colorful or white which is based on colored and clear plastic.
Image courtesy of https://www.pinaryoldas.info/WORK/Ecosystem-of-Excess-2014
Another station features a nurdle beach, nurdles being pre-production plastic pellets. These building blocks of multiple plastic types are repurposed by Yoldas as sand in this plastosphere ecosystem. She notes that nurdles are the number one plastic contaminating beaches around the world.
Pacific Balloon Turtle is an evolution of turtles that commonly eat colorful plastics like bags and balloons which settle in the oceans. This new turtle has soft shells capable of inflating which function to help them swim longer distances as the sea levels rise, and serve as selective features for mating.
Image courtesy of https://www.pinaryoldas.info/WORK/Ecosystem-of-Excess-2014
In a presentation the opening night of this exhibition at the Aksioma Project Space in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Pinar Yoldas cited photographer Chris Jordan. Specifically, she noted one of his famous photos of young albatross carcass, stomach filled with plastic. Jordan documented this tragic, all too common occurrence in his short film Albatross. One of the most heartbreaking images from this video is a dead albatross chick, stomach full of plastic bottle lids.
From this series, Yoldas attempts to mend the wounded seabird population by creating future birds who have evolved digestive organs that can detect and breakdown plastic. These organs are like branching tubes, some are blue, and some are colorless. The organs are suspended in water, bubbles collecting on their surfaces. There are two types of detective organs ment for the two most common plastics, polypropylene and polyethylene. PetroNephros is a kidney that filters plastics while Petrogestive system is a digestive system for seabirds eating plastic. While it is deeply disturbing that organisms would need to evolve new digestive systems, it gives the audience hope that, though changed, marine life will find a way to continue instead of disappearing for good.
Image courtesy of https://www.pinaryoldas.info/WORK/Ecosystem-of-Excess-2014
An Ecosystem of Excess is a deeply researched, well thought out exhibition. In a world that relies on its oceans to function, activist art like this is a means to make people pay attention. The sad vision of a future that requires adaptation to toxins instead of cleaning them up suggests that many species wont make it, and much of the ocean’s biodiversity will be lost. Pinar Yoldas brings a provoking and urgent subject to light in a scientific and strangely captivating way. It leaves the viewer unsettled, yet oddly comforted by the resilience of life.
Image courtesy of https://www.pinaryoldas.info/WORK/Ecosystem-of-Excess-2014
Resources:
Anderson, S. (Dec, 15, 2014). The Plastic-Eating Fungi That Could Solve Our Garbage Problem. Newsweek. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/26/plastic-eating-fungi-could-solve-our-garbage-problem-291694.html
Calit2ube. (Feb 7, 2017). gallery@calit2 Exhibition: An Ecosystem of Excess. Calit2 Gallery. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywuTcxWw35M.
Duke University. (Oct 16, 2013). The Very Loud Chamber Orchestra of Endangered Species. Duke University. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPYj_YMFiJI
Fontana, F. (n.d.) Shaping Alternative Futures. Interview with Pinar Yoldas. Digicult. Retrieved from http://digicult.it/news/shaping-alternative-futures-interview-pinar-yoldas/
Jordan, C and Maqueda, M. (2018). Albatross. Retrieved from https://www.albatrossthefilm.com/
Knight, L. (May 17, 2014). A brief history of plastics, natural and synthetic. BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27442625
Stone, T, and Ramsey, D. (Jan 18, 2017). Artist Offers Dystopic Vision of New Life Forms Emerging from Great Pacific Garbage Patch. California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology San Diego Gallery. Retrieved from http://calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=2800
Yoldas, P. (2013). The Very Loud Chamber Orchestra of Endangered Species. Retrieved from https://www.pinaryoldas.info/WORK/The-Very-Loud-Chamber-Orchestra-of-Endangered-Species-2013
2000m2. (Feb 24, 2014). Pinar YOldas: An Ecosystem of Excess. 2000m2. Retrieved from https://www.2000m2.eu/pinar-yoldas-an-ecosystem-of-excess/
(Feb 12, 2014). Pinar Yoldas -- An Ecosystem of Excess. Aksioma. Retrieved from https://aksioma.org/ecosystem.of.excess/
(May 28, 2015). Ink from the Sky. Duke Graduate School. Retrieved from https://research.duke.edu/ink-sky
(2017). An Ecosystem of Excess with Pinar Yoldas and Regine Hengge. Schering Stiftung. Retrieved from https://scheringstiftung.de/en/projektraum/pinar-yoldas-an-ecosystem-of-excess/an-ecosystem-of-excess-mit-pinar-yoldas-und-regine-hengge/
(April 11, 2019) A Guide to Plastic in the Ocean. NOAA. Retrieved from
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/marinedebris/plastics-in-the-ocean.html
