A major presence among plastic pollution amassing on Great Lakes shores in North America, balloons are up to 30 percent more lethal than hard plastics for marine life that become immobilized in their ribbons or choke while eating their torn bodies. A source of microplastics when they break down in water, as many as 960,000 balloons may end up in Lake Erie annually. Many North American municipalities have recently banned intentional balloon releases. Utilizing the tactile intimacy of Polaroids to communicate our personal, often familial responsibility for environmental degradation, my series All of Yesterday's Parties explores how balloon pollution exists in the southwestern region of the province of Ontario in Canada today and how it underscores the casual toxicity of the consumer economy that provisions our domestic lives. Developed during family celebrations, camping trips, and vacations along the shores of Lake Erie and Lake Huron, balloon pollution is documented extensively, but also collected to upcycle into other images and considerations. Aided by my family, I employ family photography, portraiture, performance and sculpture to reconfigure the meaning of not only balloons today but also the ways we celebrate in domestic western capitalism. This work underscores how deeply we need to change consumer practices to avert environmental catastrophe and the obsoletion of balloons in the future of human life.
Generously supported by the Canada Council of the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
