Gabriela García, Tower, 2020. Digital photograph. Courtesy of the artist.
Drawing from her interest in both the formal properties and ecological implications of polystyrene or plastic #6—commonly referred to by the brand name Styrofoam—Gabriela García presents the site-specific and participatory installation, Disposability Disrupted. Trained as both an architect and photographer, García collects and documents quotidian objects to prompt further exploration into their materiality and function. Spanning various mediums, Disposability Disrupted demonstrates her long-running fascination with the aesthetic qualities of waste, while simultaneously reflecting on its calamitous anthropogenic impact.
The installation comprises ready-made, free-standing polystyrene sculptures arranged in various configurations throughout the gallery. Additionally, a printed vinyl wallpaper provides a visual archive of the artist’s ever-expanding collection of polystyrene objects, while large photographs highlight individual works fabricated with exacting precision to encase the items they must protect.
Disposability Disrupted is a detailed inventory that illustrates, through quantity and repetition, the sheer amount of polystyrene that is manufactured, used, and ultimately thrown away. García visually mimics the scale of this problem by creating a photographic and sculptural index of individual pieces. The resulting installation invites the viewer to reconcile the problematic reality of manufactured wastefulness with the inherent beauty of readily-discarded material, elevating it to the status of art object. For García this is a call to action: reconsider not only of what we discard but more fundamentally what we value.
Gabriela García, Untitled, 2020. Digital photograph. Courtesy of the artist.
This new presentation by García marks the culmination of nearly a decade of research compiled on Styrofoam. During this time, the artist meticulously photographed and cataloged over 600 examples of this single-use material sourced throughout Miami, oftentimes from her network of friends, family, and acquaintances, who deliver their disposable items to her studio.
“When I first began collecting Styrofoam, I was taken with the idea that these objects were beautiful in themselves, despite no longer serving their intended function of covering or protecting another item, which was the thing that we first needed or desired. At some point, the group took on a greater significance than the individual object, speaking to how fast we live and consume. I began to see them as representative of life itself; a life lived with immediacy and instant gratification.”
Upon its conclusion, García will move the polystyrene artworks and surplus material left by participants to a recycling plant in Naples, Florida, where she will process and condense the waste into single polystyrene cubes. Despite its pervasiveness and toxicity to humans and animals, polystyrene remains virtually impossible to recycle in Miami-Dade County. By recycling the majority of the installation, García hopes to demonstrate how artists and institutions alike can reduce their environmental impact by contributing to the circular economy.
Courtesy of Bakehouse Art Complex. Filmed by Preguntas Studio, 2023.
About the artist
Gabriela Garcia D'Alta (b. 1982, Boston, MA) is an artist and architect currently based in Miami, Florida. Raised in Caracas, Venezuela, she studied architecture at the Universidad Santa Maria and photography at the Roberto Mata Taller Fotografía. She has exhibited at galleries and art fairs across Miami, including Swampspace, Pinta Miami, and RAW POP UP, among others. She has exhibited internationally at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Maracay Mario Abreu, Maracay; ZK/U - Center for Art and Urbanistics, Berlin; tête Project Space, Berlin; Galeria 3ytres, Caracas; and Hacienda La Trinidad, Caracas. García has been a resident artist at Bakehouse Art Complex since 2018.