BREACH: Logbook 17 Long Island
Created as a part of an upcoming exhibition "We The People: Serving Notice" opening at the American Museum of Ceramic Art - California (August 5 - December 31, 2017) in response to ongoing issues of environmental sustainability and cultural viability as currently our coastal aquaculture harvesting in Long Island, New York is threatened by an increase of nitrogen run-offs creating large algae blooms combined with warming waters.
The fragility of the environment as a non-functioning space where generations of coastal people have been able to harvest is metaphorically consistent with that of the material of ceramics, a material harvested from locality, woven and intertwined in this work with architectural integrity, however, will never be strong enough to hold a full load of shellfish if put to task.
This piece will never have to function, because we can't fill our baskets even if we wanted to. The PSP levels are so high that the effect of neurotoxins will kill us if consumed. As a person who comes from a coastal community we were always blessed to go to our shores, dig our feet in the sand, place our hands in the water and fill our baskets with enough to eat. "We the People: Serving Notice" - BREACH: Logbook 2017: "Can a culture sustain itself when it no longer has access to the environment that fashions that culture? Can we?" - Courtney M. Leonard