Even at home we can save the world
Walking along the city streets we see evidence of each other. Little stones painted with encouraging messages, left randomly — here beneath a tree, there by a bus stop. Plastic bags tumble along the sidewalk in a wind, stopped by a fence where they flutter and shred.
We are connected not only to each other but to nature, as well. Toronto artist Jessica Hiemstra expresses this connectivity in a series of work dedicated to the albatross.
“Adults feed their chicks bits of plastic they find at sea and, as a result, the young starve to death,” she says about the powerful, threatened birds. “Alongside my overwhelming sense of guilt and concern about this, I identify strongly with the albatross who sees shining, beautiful things and mistakes them for nourishment.”
The piece above, “Single use topography” is made from stitched-together, single-use plastic bags. The series began in 2018 when she and her partner, photographer Paul David Esposti, collaborated on “an exploration of our relationship with the plastic we see and find in our neighbourhood.” She began sewing tapestries out of the bags; Esposti photographed them snagged in trees.
“We hope our work encourages contemplation of our interrelationships: with one another, our world (plastic, birds and trees included), and with what we consume and how we consume it,” says Hiemstra.
By collecting and then creating art out of the plastic, “it’s no longer destructive to the animals who share the shoreline with me.” And so it becomes a gift to the albatross, she says.
Our actions can spark joy, destruction — or be a gift, nourish our souls: we are connected.
You can see more of Hiemstra’s work at jessicahiemstra.ca.