Wasted Away
2023, Krinzinger Galerie, Vienna
Mix-media Installation with soluble sculpture
Banana-peel fibers, glass containers, water, light, steel table
H: 1,60 m, W: 1,30 m
“Wasted Away” draws attention to consumption, waste, pollution, and their effect on biodiversity. The materials used include banana peels, water, light, sound, glass, motor, magnets, and steel.
In this installation, six glass containers with samples of banana peel fiber in various processing stages are on top of a table. Inside one of the containers is a cast of a human sacral bone — out of such fiber — gradually eroding and dissolving in water. A low-pitched soundscape plays in the background.
‘Wasted Away’ merges and confronts long-lasting biological decomposition processes with eco-technological possibilities; the sacrum is a sturdy bone and one of the last to break down in a decaying human body, while banana peel fiber is scientifically proven to absorb and remove heavy metals from polluted water bodies.
The installation points out that sustainable technologies can invaluably help tackle critical environmental problems yet remain largely unused in the face of increasing global calamities.
The image of the object-like human sacrum bone softly dissolving in water within a closed system is a visual comment on the actual situation on planet Earth, with its alarming numbers of species exponentially decreasing and disappearing directly or indirectly through pollution and global warming; humanity, as such, is not exempt from this.

FOTO: M. MAHDAVI

FOTO: M. MAHDAVI


FOTO: I. SÜCÜLLÜ

FOTO: M. MAHDAVI

FOTO: I. SÜCÜLLÜ