Whirling plastic nets suspended from the ceiling create an ethereal environment in Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Anna Hepler's new installation at Rockport's Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA).
The exhibit, titled "Gyre," consists of net-like webs constructed with sewn sheets of plastic and tarps.
"I was interested to try a new material for this installation and I knew I wanted to use sheet plastic because it is easy to manipulate and it is often translucent which also interested me in terms of layering," Hepler said.
The piece hangs from the ceiling, and as a result, twists and moves to create the sense of a vortex that draws viewers in.
Hepler developed the idea of creating a spiraling installation after reading an article about the plastic dump in the northern Pacific Ocean referred to as the North Pacific Gyre, an area approximately the size of Texas. Plastic trash from the ocean is gathering in the area.
"News of this waterborne landfill inspired imagery, and particularly the image of being under water looking up at a tangled mass of plastic trash," Hepler said.
Although Hepler drew inspiration from the North Pacific Gyre, the installation is not a direct reflection of it but rather of Hepler's reaction to the gyre.
"My installation is not attempting to illustrate the plastic epidemic in the north Pacific but it does respond in direct ways to the knowledge of it," she said.
Instead of buying material to work with, Hepler salvaged plastic from the dump for the installation. She spent one month preparing to install the exhibit, which included sewing nets from plastic sheeting and recruiting people to help her sew.
Jenna Breiter '10, a visual arts major, assisted Hepler during the final eight days of installing the piece before it opened on January 10.
"We worked from morning til evening," Breiter said. "I helped her have enough material to work with. I took strips of plastic and sewed them into grid-like formations because we were making nets."
For Breiter, watching Hepler complete the process of creating the 45-foot-long installation was inspiring.
"That was really the most amazing thing to be a part of," she said. "When I approach my own work, the process is very important to me. The process is how you begin to understand what you're thinking about. It was amazing to watch that happen."
"It reminds me to struggle, and to allow that struggle to happen," Breiter added of watching Hepler work.
The result of Hepler's process is an installation that the CMCA web site calls "both beautiful and vaguely discomforting."
"The final piece overwhelms the central space in the Loft Gallery and from certain vantage points is a bit overwhelming and possibly claustrophobia-inducing," Hepler said. "Once the viewer becomes aware of the plastic and detailed sewing, there is additional discomfort understanding the accumulative labor that went into the project."
However, the installation in its entirety evokes a different sensation.
"The beauty comes from the lattice and that the form is lit from within such that the light filters out into the room and onto the walls in beautiful ways," Hepler said.
Although Hepler is not attempting to convey a didactic message through "Gyre," viewers will encounter contradictions in the installation that Hepler hopes they will consider.
"I am interested always in presenting contrasts and contradictions that need to be reconciled by the viewer such as heavy and light, unintentional and intentional, detail versus huge form, beautiful and ugly," she said.
Hepler will be giving a gallery talk at the CMCA at 2 p.m. tomorrow. It is free with admission and open to the public. "Gyre" will be on display through March 21.