Future Pacific is an immersive, site-specific installation by Miami-based artist Lauren Shapiro. Converging art, science, and technology, Shapiro’s interactive exhibit aims to cultivate environmental stewardship in the local community and provide a platform for researchers who work to preserve and protect endangered marine ecosystems. Future Pacific features large-scale, unfired clay structures that resemble architectural ruins covered in 15,000 pounds of clay textures sourced from coral reefs.
With support from the National Science Foundation and informed by the research of marine ecologist Dr. Nyssa Silbiger, Shapiro’s installation reveals the hidden beauty of coral reefs and brings attention to their vital role in the environment. Since the beginning of the year, Shapiro has been collaborating with researchers to cast silicone molds of coral skeletons and reef animal bones collected from reefs worldwide. Unable to collect the textures directly from Silbiger’s research site in Moorea, French Polynesia due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Shapiro has sourced some of the forms from high-resolution 3D models of coral reef habitats.
To build the exhibition, Shapiro engaged the local community through a series of hands-on, physically-distanced workshops at the Bakehouse. Participants were not required to have previous experience in ceramics and contributed to the installation by pressing clay into the silicone molds and applying the forms to foundational structures inside of the gallery. Shapiro attempts to reduce the overall environmental impact of her exhibit by using unfired clay and removing the heating process and glaze chemicals traditionally used in ceramics. Eventually, the unfired clay will dry and crack, creating the visual effect of a fossilized coral reef. Once Future Pacific comes to an end, the clay will be reclaimed with water and recycled.
Throughout the process, Shapiro worked closely with marine anthropologist and filmmaker Dr. Shireen Rahimi, who developed a short film that documents the conceptualization and creation of the exhibition over the course of several months.
Rahimi and Shapiro also collaborated to develop and devise a virtual reality component that provides an immersive experience for viewers who are unable to attend the exhibition in person.
Digital Publication
An accompanying exhibition publication, which includes essays by Shapiro and Silbiger, as well as photographs documenting the diverse species of corals featured in the exhibition can by clicking here.
About the Artist
Lauren Shapiro is a visual artist living and working in Miami, Florida. She earned an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Miami. She utilizes a multi-step casting process in clay resulting in modular sculptures and installations that reference systems and visual orders found in nature. Her work draws inspiration from environmental research and data, ceramics and social practice.
As a Miami-based artist, Shapiro is aware of the growing climate pressures on tropical populations. Her work seeks to foster awareness and develop solutions for our changing landscape. Part of her practice involves community-based activations where participants hand-mold clay structures that are assembled into site-specific arrangements. After completion, each installation is deconstructed and recycled to build subsequent projects. Through the medium and its impermanence, the final outcome mimics the cycle of growth and decay that occurs in nature, calling participants to cultivate environmental stewardship and mindfulness.
Shapiro has completed residencies at Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute at Jingdezhen, China, Labverde in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil, and at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO. She has exhibited during Art Basel Miami at Scope Art Fair and the New Art Dealer’s Alliance (NADA) and she has showcased her work internationally during Art Basel Switzerland at Projektraum M54. In 2019, she was awarded the Wavemaker Grant through Locust Projects, funded in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation, and a Knight Arts Challenge grant for a project that will culminate in an exhibition at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in 2021. Shapiro is an artist in residence at the Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami, where she serves as the Head of the Ceramics Studio.
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This exhibition is generously sponsored by Thea, Jordyn, Jayde, Alexander, and Jonathan Mitzman, in honor of Robert Mitzman’s birthday and to celebrate his spirit of curiosity and imagination and the family’s interest in environmental protection advocacy.
Future Pacific is also supported by a National Science Foundation grant to Dr. Silbiger, CSUN, Silbiger Labs, with additional sponsorship from Mason Colorworks and Highwater Clay.