Vivian Spiegelman

Refuse Encore

May 3 - July 3, 2013

This group of photograms was created from a variety of packaging materials – mostly plastic containers and utensils. Our world has been transformed by plastic. It is a dominant substance in our material world of commerce. We make, use, value, transform, waste, ignore and discard it. It serves as a vessel, shell, skin, covering and protection. It adds value to what we buy and sell. In every aisle of the grocery store it wraps and packs everything from soup to nuts, wet to dry, large items and small. We buy and discard enough plastic to encircle the earth four times. We toss out another 35 billion plastic bottles, which take up to 1,000 years to decompose. We recycle a fraction of it, and leave the rest to future archeologists. Light passes through the transparent skin and casts subtle shadows of lines and textures. Each time the image is different. The shadow is fixed in the deep grays and blacks of the gelatin silver paper and creates something precious and valuable from the refuse. I dedicate this work to John Wood, a generous teacher and brilliant artist.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Vivian Spiegelman earned an MFA in photography from Arizona State University and a BFA in art from the College of Ceramics at Alfred University in New York. Originally from New York she now lives in Arizona and teaches photography at South Mountain High School in Phoenix, Arizona. Her teaching stints also include Arizona State University, Maricopa Community Colleges in Phoenix and adult education at C.W. Post College and Hofstra University. Exhibited nationally, Spiegelman’s work has been seen east to west - from New York’s Midtown Y Gallery to Northlight Gallery in Tempe, Arizona. Her photographic portraits have appeared in magazines and newspapers including the Phoenix New Times, Smart Money and High Country News.