Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape 1 Favorite 

Sian Ka’an is an extraordinary UNESCO tropical nature reserve along Mexico’s Carribean coastline, but the currents that pass by this area bring garbage from all over the world to the shores of this paradise. Alejandro Duran, an artist working in Brooklyn, NY, collects this trash and arranges it into works of colorful landscape art to examine “the tension between the natural world and an increasingly overdeveloped one.”

According to Duran, he has found trash from 50 nations on 6 continents while walking the beaches of Sian Ka’an. Some of his photos portray the garbage the way the waves might have left it, while other show a clear and deliberate design. In either case, however, the message is clear: “The resulting photo series depicts a new form of colonization by consumerism, where even undeveloped land is not safe from the far-reaching impact of our disposable culture.”

Duran’s work will be on display at the Habana Outpost in Brooklyn (http://www.alejandroduran.com/events/2015/4/19/havana-outpost) on April 22nd and at the Xo Ki’in Retreat Center in Sian Ka’an on May 11 (http://www.alejandroduran.com/events/museo-de-basura).

More info: www.alejandroduran.com | Instagram (https://instagram.com/alejandroduran/)