Breathing in the Anthropocene

We are holding a workshop for the young participants and they have been asked to create a speculative diorama of future for exhibiting at the museum. We have supplied them with a mixture of both natural materials, sea shells, sand and rhizomatic vines, and also some not so natural, plastic materials like plastic dinosaurs, trash bags, and fake plants. They work diligently in small groups in creating dynamic meaningful spaces that seem to become an amalgamation of natural and unnatural materials.

One of the participants asks if they can use some discarded insect specimens in their diorama. These dead insects are presented in an oversized scale as creators flying above an ocean made from plastic. The landscape of the diorama troubles the viewer into wondering if it's not a landfill, or at least was in the recent past. The diorama in its imaginative composition troubles time and our relationship to both human and non-human beings, as it aesthetically evokes a dystopian atmosphere.

In the museum there are also dioramas created to show this troubling relationship between plastic and animals. Some birds like to use colorful blue plastics to decorate their nest. They do this as part of their mating ritual to attract females to their nests. As the saying goes ‘one man's trash is another [animal's] treasure’ or something to that effect.