The Abstraction is Not the Reality
Photographs from the remote beach of Playa Zancudo in the south of Costa Rica point to the need for us to drastically change our consumption habits. The abstract compositions of bright colour and texture attract the eye only to reveal themselves as bits of plastic pollution on dark sand, waves of patterned detritus created by the surf. Our superficial perception of the images as benignly aesthetic, reminiscent of 20th century paintings, mimics our tendency to distance our thinking about difficult issues. Only on closer observation do we see what is really there.
In North America in particular, concerns about waste often remain on an abstract level, separated from the global reality. We know we waste too much; use too much plastic; that it goes somewhere that is bad for the environment. We try to do better, telling ourselves there will be solutions. Our habits hardly change. But when confronted with isolated beaches covered in broken pieces of the products we consume, the abstraction becomes very real. The enormity of the problem is far greater than our well-meaning concern.
Zancudo Tracks
As humans, we measure ourselves by many self-constructed criteria. Notions of creative inspiration form one of our many conceits that serve to lift us above other lifeforms. We pride ourselves on the development of culture and creative production, including the visual arts. Yet, each day in Playa Zancudo, the crabs and mollusks emerge to etch their marks in the sand, transitory drawings that record cycles of life in abstract beauty.
Maybe our aesthetic experience is not such a step away from nature and we do not have ownership of creativity. With their resemblance to 20th century drawing and painting, these images propose greater awareness of our connection to the natural world and hope to remind us that our creativity is not a sign of superiority. Artists such as Hundertwasser understood this; Paul Klee and Joan Miro would find kinship here in Playa Zancudo.
Peter Sramek, Playa Zancudo, Costa Rica, 12/2021 – 02/2022
The two series are also viewable in a virtual gallery on kunstmatrix.com.
As a photo-based artist, my work reflects on how photographs can represent society and our experiences of culture. The role of art in engaging individuals in such reflection lies at the heart of my art making and teaching. Considering social or environmental issues, in personal or global contexts, are all part of my diverse interests. Recent projects contemplate my own connection with the natural environment, which has always been a sustaining force in my life. This exhibition is the result of spending two months in an isolated beach area in Costa Rica where the overwhelming amount of washed-up plastic, so distant from urban conglomerations, was an eye-opener, prompting an artistic response beyond the physical attempts to collect and remove a tiny portion. Photographing the crab ‘drawings’ provided a freeing response and emotional antidote, as if they were an indication of the continuance of dynamic life beyond, and in spite of, our human waste.
The photographs in this show were taken between December 2021 and the end of February 2022. They are digitally printed on archival Awagami Unryu paper made in Tokushima, Japan. In February of 2024, we had the opportunity to visit the paper factory in the small village of Awa on Shikoku Island. The age-old art of washi making, modernized with coatings for inkjet printing, provides a unique and textured surface which brings a tactile dimension to the images.
Photographs are available singly, or as organized into groups to create larger composites.