Ocean Bound
March 15, 2019 - April 18, 2019
Plastic Waste and Why We Are Bound to the Health of Our Oceans
Presented by The Midway & Lonely Whale
MARCH 15, 2019: OPENING NIGHT W/DINNER, DISCUSSIONS, & MUSIC HEADLINER LILLY HIATT | 6PM-1:30AM | TICKETS HERE
On Friday, March 15, The Midway will open its doors for Ocean-Bound: Plastic Waste and Why We Are Bound to the Health of Our Oceans, a multidisciplinary exhibition and panel series, presented in partnership with Lonely Whale, bringing local advocates, renowned artists, powerful musicians, and delicious food to the table. This is a two-tiered ticketed event; read below.
Join us for our pre-opening dinner & conversation at 6PM which kicks off with a cocktail hour in the Gallery. Explore the blown-up, hyperrealistic drawings of the world’s icebergs by Zaria Forman, larger-than-life inflatable sculptures by Jana Cruder and Matthew LaPenta, and recycled waste sculptures by Joel Dean Stockdill and Yustina Salnikova. Dip into Envelop SF for a private listening session featuring soundscape, Ice Crispies, made in collaboration with Zaria Forman. Come hungry as Luke’s Lobsters will be in our kitchen working with The Midway Culinary to serve up a mouth-watering sit-down dinner within Zaria Forman’s immersive art installation. Fill your bellies while listening to panel discussions speakers from the media, the arts, local and national politics and local and national athletics: the International Ocean Film Festival, NCEL, Surfrider Foundation, Green Sports Alliance, and the Oakland Athletics. Round off your meal with a short film screening and discussion by Story of Stuff and Executive Producer of the Story of Plastic, Stiv Wilson, before heading back into the main venue and joining the masses for our Gallery Reception. ($80 admission)
Limited tickets available. Proceeds support The Midway and its commitment to presenting environmentally aware programming which supports local impact and thought leadership.
Our 9PM Gallery Reception will open with the soulful throwback grooves of Nico Yaryan, followed by the ragged rock ‘n’ roll of Lilly Hiatt. Escape into Envelop SF, an immersive audio venue amplifying the social and emotional power of music through immersive listening sessions, to experience Ice Crispies, soundscape developed in collaboration with exhibiting artist, Zaria Forman.
Discover art installations by:
Zaria Forman, debuting a site-specific multimedia production in addition to her enormous, hyperrealistic pastel drawings documenting climate change.
Artist duo, Jana Cruder and Matthew LaPenta, bring colossal everyday items into The Midway Gallery, inviting visitors to consider the scale of the plastic pollution crisis as they compare their physical scale to blownup water bottles and straws .
Joel Dean Stockdill and Yustina Salnikova present Contain Yourself, a sculpture built from discarded water bottles, calling attention to the myth of recycling and encouraging visitors to reduce their environmental footprint.
Madam Zola’s Fortune will be open and serving bites throughout the night. Our bars will also be fully stocked and ready for you. ($25 admission)
Exhibiting Artists:
ZARIA FORMAN documents climate change with pastel drawings. She travels to remote regions of the world to collect images and inspiration for her work, which is exhibited worldwide. She has flown with NASA on several Operation IceBridge missions over Antarctica, Greenland, and Arctic Canada. She was featured on CBS Sunday Morning, CNN, and PBS. She delivered a TEDTalk, and spoke at Amazon, Google, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, exhibited in Banksy’s Dismaland, and was the artist-in-residence aboard the National Geographic Explorer in Antarctica. Her works have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, and the Smithsonian Magazine. Forman currently works and resides in Brooklyn, NY, and is represented by Winston Wächter Fine Art in New York, NY and Seattle, WA.
Ice Crispies
Errera Channel, Antarctica, 2015, by Zaria FormanLe Conte Bay, Antarctica, 2018, by Eric Wehrmeister
Spatial mix by Jamil Lea (Envelop)
This sound is fondly referred to as “ice crispies.” The crackle is the sound of ancient air meeting new. It’s the sound of glacial ice melting, and the ancient air bubbles trapped inside of it breaking free. (Also, the “whirring” sounds you hear in the background are Gentoo penguins.)
These bubbles contain a treasure trove of information for scientists who use them to obtain the age of the ice, which in many cases is several hundred thousand years old. Through careful chemical measurements, scientists can reconstruct both the local temperature and the composition of the ancient atmosphere (i.e. how much carbon dioxide and methane there were) from the time when the bubbles became locked in the ice sheet. The records gleaned from these archives help us understand how and why Earth’s climate has changed in the past and what this may portend for our future.
Take this song of ancient air and experience the sonic tranquility of Antarctica in your daily life. Please share with others!
JANA CRUDER & MATTHEW LAPENTA Los Angeles based multi-media artists Jana Cruder and Matthew LaPenta continue to use their individual art practices and unique identities as artists to explore new ideas and alternative aesthetic territories in a collaborative effort that is equally accessible as it is challenging. They are deeply moved by the current state of humanity and its impact on the planet. Through their current
collaborative projects, they aim to cast a spotlight that is enlightening while also unassuming on the environmental, technological, political and social realities of today.
Natural Plasticity installation brings the impact of consumer and corporate behavior regarding single-use-plastics into clear site. Beckoning the viewer to evaluate their own behavior with plastic consumption. In order to change what is manufactured and marketed we must first inspire awareness and change the individual. To positively effect consumer behavior we’ve decided to alter the local landscape by installing 20ft to 30ft replicas of a plastic bottles, plastic disposable cups and straws. These larger then life objects, when placed in landscapes unaccustomed to art grab hold of the viewer and ask them to look inward at their own habits.
By working with inflatables the project has the ability to change locations throughout a geographical area over the course of several days. Mirroring the same way plastics interact and are disposed of within environment.
JOEL DEAN STOCKDILL For the past six years, Joel Dean Stockdill, and his collaborating team, have been creating WildLife, a global series of large scale sculptures. Each piece is inspired by native species and is created spontaneously from discarded waste material found locally. The WildLife Project has birthed 28 very large beasts that span 4 continents throughout various public rural and private sites. Joel is a self taught sculptor with a passion for reimagining the potentials of our discarded materials through large scale sculpture, installation art and innovation.
YUSTINA SALNIKOVA is a designer/sculptor with a vision to bring environmental awareness and social change through installation art and the transformation of public spaces. In 2016, the two joined forced and together they have created 10 animals out of recycled waste. Their largest and most recent collaboration being a life-size blue whale commissioned by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Stockdill and Salnikova are represented by Building 180.
Partners
Lonely Whale
Lonely Whale is an award-winning incubator for courageous ideas that drive impactful market-based change on behalf of our ocean. Founded in December 2015 by Adrian Grenier and Lucy Sumner, Lonely Whale is inspired by the power of community to create the change needed to ensure a healthy planet. Lonely Whale is working towards a new era of radical collaboration, together facilitating the creation of innovative ideas that push the boundary on current trends in technology, media and advocacy that positively impact the health of our ocean. The organization spearheaded the global Strawless Ocean movement, which permanently removes single-use plastic straws from establishments and markets, and NextWave Plastics, the first global network of ocean-bound plastics supply chains. Lonely Whale’s work has been recognized by Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas, the Shorty Awards, the ADDY Awards, the SEAL Awards, the P4G 2018 Circular Economy Award sponsored by the Danish Government, the HALO Awards, and more. Lonely Whale is a proud supporter of the UN Environment’s #CleanSeas campaign. To learn more and support, visit www.lonelywhale.org or follow @LonelyWhale.
Envelope
Envelop is a nonprofit that amplifies the social and emotional power of music through immersive listening experiences. With 32 speakers surrounding the audience, Envelop’s immersive audio venues and free open source spatial audio tools, provide a space to deeply listen, relax and reset. Hosting a wide diversity of events from spatial music performances and album listening events, to wellness and immersive audio education, Envelop allows us to be inside the music. envelop.us