Event
Kat Martin: ResurrectedPost an Event »
Three30Forty
November 6 - November 28, 2015Info
330 40th Street Oakland, CA 94609 Google Map »Reception
November 6, 2015 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Kat Martin. Heat Study #15.
Three30Forty is pleased to present Resurrected, a solo exhibition of new works by Oakland-based artist Kat Martin. Martin’s primary medium is the single use plastic bag, which she layers and fuses with heat before stretching the resulting collage over canvas frames to create lively, colorful, and thought-provoking abstractions. Plastic is an exceedingly durable material: pliant, waterproof, able to absorb strikes and stress. It does not break down easily; by some estimates, it could take as many as 1,000 years for a plastic bag to decompose. That an object designed to be used once is made of a material that lasts a millennium is a contradiction. Martin states: “Its usage is short lived in comparison to its resilient quality. This puts the bags themselves in an existential crisis: infinite potential without a positive direction. My works aim to boost the morale of plastic bags as objects, giving the bags utility and appreciability beyond the initial intent of their creation.” Martin rescues these ubiquitous, disposable bags from their fate in the garbage can and gives them new life as an artwork. She is interested in the garbage can as a transformative space: “The act of throwing something away destroys the trajectory of that object. It removes the ability for that object to have any intention, or be intended upon. It is a rejection of its entire form. However, the more interesting moment is when you pull something out of the trash. The trajectory of the object is reactivated, the object itself is resurrected. It becomes open to reuse, rebirth. It is the realization of hope.” About 2 million plastic bags are used every minute around the world, many of them used once and thrown away. A miniscule fraction of those cross paths with Kat Martin and are resurrected.