“SEA CHANGE”: Chris Jordan: Midway / Aurora Robson: The Tide is High

Aurora Robson artist lecture: October 21, 2–3:30pm 
Exhibiting artist Aurora Robson will discuss her career and artwork. 
Room 309, Simons Center for the Arts, 54 St. Philip Street, Charleston, SC 29401 

Aurora Robson artist/activist talk: October 23, 6:30–8pm 
Tickets required 
South Carolina Aquarium, 100 Aquarium Wharf, Charleston, SC 29401 

Chris Jordan artist lecture: October 24, 7–9pm
Exhibiting artist Chris Jordan will discuss his career and artwork 
Sottile Theatre, 44 George Street, Charleston, SC 29401 

Film screening of ALBATROSS: October 25, 7–9pm
Trailer 
Charleston Music Hall, 37 John Street, Charleston, SC 29403 

In-gallery conversation with Chris Jordan: October 28, 2–3pm 
Informal gallery talk with exhibiting artist Chris Jordan 

Curator-led tour of “SEA CHANGE” exhibitions: December 7, 6–7pm
Must be a member of the Halsey Institute or the SC Aquarium 

“SEA CHANGE” is a series of exhibitions and programs presented in collaboration with the South Carolina Aquarium to raise awareness of our enormous plastic waste problem and the detrimental effects on our planet. Two exhibitions, Aurora Robson: The Tide is High and Chris Jordan: Midway will serve as the centerpiece of the programming.

For her exhibition at the Halsey Institute, Aurora Robson will create a site-specific installation using only plastic from discarded bottles and other objects to fill the Deborah A. Chalsty Gallery. Robson’s installation will reveal the potential of working with post-consumer plastic to create new objects—a key strategy in helping to intercept the stream of plastic waste that ultimately reaches our oceans. As an artist who explores ecological issues, Robson works primarily with plastic debris, transforming quotidian waste into aesthetic objects of beauty and reflection. Under her meticulous manipulation, the plastic materials take on an organic quality, thus connecting back to nature. Many of her works take on forms resembling otherworldly organisms that exist on the ocean floor; in this way, her work is further associated with the sea. Robson’s process references a legacy of using found objects as media for sculpture. By transforming everyday trash into works of art, her sculpture forces viewers to consider their own relationship with plastic materials and waste.

Robson will also have a piece exhibited at the South Carolina Aquarium.

On view simultaneously with Aurora Robson’s installation, Chris Jordan’s photographs depict the magnitude of humanity’s consumption and its impact on the environment. His work sends a bold message about unconscious behaviors in our everyday lives, providing a platform for rich conversation and education around issues of ocean health, ecosystem interconnectedness, and mass consumption, especially of plastics.

The exhibition will present photographs from Jordan’s body of work entitled Midway. On Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands more than 2,000 miles from the nearest continent, the detritus of our mass consumption surfaces in an astonishing place: inside the stomachs of countless dead baby albatrosses. The nesting chicks are fed lethal quantities of plastic by their parents, who mistake the floating trash for food as they forage over the vast polluted Pacific Ocean. The Halsey Institute will present the world premiere of ALBATROSS, Jordan’s feature-length film on the subject, as part of the public programming for this exhibition.

Learn more about “SEA CHANGE” here.