Local Artist: Presley Martin
Thursday, June 10, 2021 at 7:46AMArticle by Becky Fillinger
Presley MartinHow do you view plastic pollution in our waterways? Environmental artist Presley Martin has the unique ability to create art from the detritus polluting the Mississippi River – created in an effort to help us think about the vast amount of plastic waste traveling through storm drains, tributaries and into the Mississippi River – and eventually into the ocean.
Q: Presley, one of your artist bio statements says you incorporate invasive species and animals into your works to give different perspectives on the natural world. Please tell us more about this notion.
A: Part of my interest in invasive species is simply material. I want to collect and use local plants in my artwork, but most parks prohibit plant collection. I think it's summed up well by a response I got from a park ranger in California when I asked if I could collect some plants from the park for an art project. They said that there was no collecting of plants allowed in the park, but when I said what about fennel (an invasive plant in CA) they said go ahead and take as much fennel as you want.
I think the general narrative in our culture regarding nature is that it's fragile and we need to protect it except when it comes to certain species we call invasive/non-native. When talking about invasives, militaristic language is often used - waging war, etc. For example, I did a project with buckthorn, an infamous local invasive tree that is the focus of an incredible amount of aggression and hateful language. I photographed flowering buckthorn covered in many species of bees and honeybees. I’m sure a delicious honey came from that buckthorn. When bees are losing habitat and losing numbers, maybe buckthorn trees covered in bees is a positive thing that we should not try to get rid of. Part of my project made ink from the buckthorn berries. Buckthorn was used for painting in Europe for centuries before more modern pigments replaced it. I hope viewers of the buckthorn project and other invasive species projects will ask questions that challenge their commonly held assumptions about invasive species.
Q: You've put together the A Field Guide to Plastic of the Mississippi River. I appreciate your humor in the naming of your guide. What do you hope people do with the information you've compiled?
A: Thank you for appreciating the humor. I hope the field guide will show people heading to the river some things they can find that they might have overlooked. I hope it sparks some curiosity about plastic pollution so that maybe someone will be inspired to go and collect plastic from the river and look for some of the objects that I highlight in the field guide. I think if we can see some of the trash as an interesting object to search for - instead of a knee jerk "gross" - then maybe more plastic will be collected from our shores. We tend to think of trash and garbage as one monolithic thing, but the reality is many different objects, some of which can be quite beautiful.
Q: What is the Foam Project?
A: The Foam Project is my ongoing project to collect and document the different types of foam in the Mississippi River. One form it takes at art shows is an installation (usually in a circle) of individual pieces of foam perched atop dowels or sticks from a few inches to four feet above the floor. Many of the pieces look like rocks so viewers often do a double take when they see a rock on the end of a thin piece of wood. This often leads viewers to find their own sense of curiosity and investigate the project further. Since the project is ongoing, the foam collection is growing and the installation gets larger each time I show it. It's now over 5,000 pieces of foam. Photographs are part of the foam project too. I document the more interesting pieces and also document the diversity of similar objects (see the Feral Peanuts of the Mississippi, pictured below).
98% Air installed at Lake Hiawatha for This is Ours show in 2018. Created from found polystyrene foam and wood. 144" diameter, 1500 pieces. (It has grown to 5000 pieces since then!)
Q: You've taught intro to ceramics, hand-building, and wheel throwing in the past. Do you still dabble in ceramics, either as a teacher or an artist?
A: I still love ceramics! Restaurants lose stars if they don't use ceramic dishes in my reviews. Recently the only art I'm making with clay are cups cast from Styrofoam cups that I find in the river (see Foam Project.) I find lots of Styrofoam cups that have been run over by cars so they have tire tread impressions on one side and pebbly road impressions on the other. I make a plaster mold of the cup and then slip cast a ceramic cup.
Q: Presley, where may we see your artwork?
A: I'll be showing two foam works at Many Waters: A Minnesota Biennial opening July 24th. This is from the show description: "A number of artists use found materials drawn from daily walks or other creative rituals. Presley Martin’s sculptural installation, for example, is made up of hundreds of pieces of foam he often first mistakes for natural materials and collects from the Mississippi." I'll also be doing several plastic collection tours at the River this summer and fall. The first one will be June 26th. People that come out will get a Field Guide. Information will be on my website.
Q: The Field Guide is a wonderful incentive! How may we follow your news?
A: Please follow me at presleymartin.com or Instagram.
