
Toxicity’s Reach
Curated by Dani Admiss
Part of AND Festival – more information here
See exhibition & event details here
From microplastics to pharmaceuticals and fertilizers, chemical cocktails contaminate waterways, eroding environmental and public health. When we cook our meals, wash our clothes, empty our sinks, drink water and use beauty products, we contribute to polluted ecosystems. As humans, we are entangled with the very environments we seek to live with, from and in.
The River Mersey in Liverpool, England, is a prime example with a complex history of industrial pollution. In the 1970s, if someone had fallen into the river, locals would say that they would die of poisoning before they would drown. Today, despite highly effective clean up attempts tackling obvious ‘point sources’ of pollution, such as effluent and sewage, this renowned waterway has more plastic in it than in the pacific garbage patch.
Through three newly commissioned online artworks by artists, Mary Maggic, Luiza Prado de. O Martins, and Sissel Marie Tonn, and an accompanying body of research, Toxicity’s Reach radically traces some of theunexpected ways in which contaminants affect our lives. How might a reimagination of toxic worlds make us think differently about our daily actions and envision other ways of being?
Credit
Toxicity’s Reach is commissioned and produced by Abandon Normal Devices, curated by Dani Admiss for AND Festival 2021. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England and Creative Industries Fund Netherlands.