CONTEMPORARY ART IN CONTEXT

AURORA ROBSON  ENVIRONMENTAL ARTIST

caption

By the 1950s, advances in plastics manufacturing accelerated by World War II (1939–1945) had helped establish plastic as a “miracle material.” Three-quarters of a century later, a growing number of artists have confronted plastic waste found in landfills and oceans. Their art addresses the impact of plastic on the environment, as Aurora Robson did in her 2017 exhibition The Tide Is High, while also creating sculptures and installations that encourage viewers to reconsider plastic as an artistic material.

Aurora Robson’s body of work includes large-scale installations and sculptures made from discarded plastic debris. She initially used plastic due to its formal and structural qualities. When she learned about the environmental issues, she made it her main material with the intention of raising awareness about plastic waste. She enjoys the challenge of making new objects from a material that might otherwise be discarded. For Robson, art is a powerful educational form.

caption

Many of Robson’s works are remarkable for their complexity and use of color, shape, and pattern. One of her sculptures was composed of 15,000 plastic bottles the artist found on the streets of New York, while another piece contained 9,000 plastic bottles. Color is a key factor for Robson, as demonstrated in Tidings. In her Pupil installation, muted color takes a back seat to shapes that—together—resemble a mysterious lifeform from the deep ocean, evoking environments affected by plastic waste.

Robson sources plastic from a variety of sources, sometimes from people experiencing homelessness whom she pays double what they would receive at a redemption center. She often also obtains plastic waste from conservation groups doing river or seashore cleanups. After sorting by shape and color, and cleaning the plastic, her hardware process can involve sewing, welding, printing, or painting. Her process of making art from plastic debris can take two to three weeks, while some projects can take well over six months.

The practice of converting discarded materials into fine art has evolved since the Environmental Movement of the late 1960s, when attention was directed to the declining condition of the natural environment due to landfills, pollution, and discarded non-biodegradable products. It contributed to the development of art made from garbage and discarded industrial materials.

The number of artists exploring the possibilities of using plastic exclusively in their art has grown greatly in the last twenty years. Like Robson, they use plastic in a variety of ways. Oscar Olivares (b. 1996, Venezuela) is known for his community-driven eco-murals using recycled plastic bottle caps. Washed Ashore, led by artist Angela Haseltine Pozzi (b. 1957, US) makes intricate sculptures of sea creatures from plastic culled from Oregon beaches. Czech artist Veronika Rochterova (b. 1964) creates what she calls “PET-art” out of plastic bottles. Works by such artists are, on the one hand, visually striking and, on the other, thought-provoking when their medium is considered.

Born in Canada, Aurora Robson grew up in Hawaii before moving to New York. She received a BA (2000) in art and art history from Columbia University, and a certificate (1993) in welding from Apex Technical School in New York. Originally interested in painting and works on paper, she ultimately settled on sculpture in an effort to make art that was meaningful to people other than just herself. Her process with plastic debris evolved between 2002 and 2003 when she conceived of a three-dimensional landscape out of PET plastic bottles strewn on the streets of New York near her studio.

Focused on contemporary practices in New York, she realized in the early 2000s that plastic was relatively unexplored. To further address the issue of plastic waste, she founded Project Vortex, an international collective of artists, designers, and architects working to change public perception of plastic to keep it out of nature. Robson has also designed a creative stewardship college course for schools that want to tackle environmental issues.

caption

What are some of the biggest influences on your work, including other artists, events, or things outside of the arts?
AR: My influences span a broad landscape, ranging from the sculptural work of Lee Bontecou and Ruth Asawa to the philosophical insights of writers like Rebecca Solnit and Joseph Campbell. I am deeply inspired by the natural world—specifically flora, fauna, and mycelium networks—and how organic forms repeat across all scales, from the microscopic to the astronomical.

What is a typical workday like for you?
AR: Because my studio processes are highly varied, I donʼt have a rigid standard day. As a mother of two, my routine is intrinsically tied to the seasons; during the academic year, I am up by 5:30 or 6:00 a.m., but over summer break, my day begins closer to 7:00 a.m.

I start each morning deliberately with gratitude, then water, coffee, and a walk down my 1,000-foot driveway with my dog to check the garden and retrieve the mail. After a short yoga routine—specifically The Five Tibetan Rites—or a gym session, I enter the studio by 9:00 a.m. I front-load my mornings with information, listening to news, podcasts, or audiobooks while working, then transition to music in the afternoon to mentally process what I’ve ingested. To maintain a healthy work-life integration, I strive to stick to standard operational hours so I can prepare home-cooked dinners and be present for my family and friends. I intentionally cluster my administrative work to Mondays and Fridays to safeguard creative momentum mid-week.

Do you incorporate play into your creative process, or create your pieces with the intention of involving the public?
AR: Play is foundational to my work; I define my studio practice as a form of “serious play.” For example, I recently installed an interactive prototype for a piece titled Toy Sculpture at the Center for Visual Art in Denver, Colorado. This series of Toy Sculptures invites the public to play with and reconfigure the artwork.

I also recently debuted a new series of friendly sculptural forms called The Encapsulates. These hollow, 3D-printed sculptures are fabricated from post-industrial plastic and engineered specifically to house my vast archive of bottle caps that represent over twenty years of working with post-consumer plastics, supplemented by thousands of caps sent to me by individuals globally who are dedicated to diverting material from the global waste stream.

caption

How complex is the process of accumulating materials for your works and coordinating color schemes?
AR: Logistically, accumulating raw material is the most straightforward aspect of my work because global plastic pollution is expanding exponentially alongside the human population. As public awareness shifts toward the toxic impacts of synthetic materials on all terrestrials, not just marine life, communities are becoming increasingly enthusiastic stakeholders. I source materials through a diverse network: local municipal collections, recycling facilities, and corporate or grassroots conservation groups conducting major coastal and river cleanups. The complexity lies in navigating the sheer volume and unpredictable sorting and cleaning requirements, which depend on the scale and nature of each piece.

Do you engage any public involvement in your artistic process, and if so, how extensively?
AR: Yes, particularly on large-scale installations where collective fabrication is necessary to meet rigorous museum or gallery timelines. When budgets permit, I hire a studio team, but I also frequently collaborate with dedicated volunteers and interns. This creates a compelling civic dynamic: the artwork is ultimately made by the public, utilizing a highly public and ubiquitously recognized material, in service to the public to address a global environmental crisis that is adversely affecting the public.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself as an emerging artist? Or what advice do you have for young aspiring artists?
AR: I would advise my younger self to prioritize professional correspondence, specifically writing more handwritten thank-you notes and maintaining long-term networks. Balancing full-time creative practice with motherhood is an intricate juggling act, and I regret not sustaining certain professional connections with greater consistency and grace.

For aspiring artists, my primary advice is to deeply honor your own practice if you expect the broader cultural institution to do the same. Factor your own well-being and philosophy directly into what you make, why you make it, and how you operate. On a practical level, master spatial visualization—learn how to build precise digital or physical scale models of galleries, as it mitigates massive logistical vulnerabilities when installing large-scale sculptures. Ultimately, let curiosity guide your career trajectory, never your ego. Giving up is always the most uninspired choice.

caption

What are you working on currently, and what upcoming projects can you share with our readers?
AR: This week [early August 2026], I am departing for an artist residency at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine. I also just wrapped up co-editing a book with Patricia Watts of ecoartspace titled Wicked Monstrous; it is a comprehensive compendium featuring artwork and essays from artists, scientists, and writers worldwide who are confronting the plastic crisis. It is slated for publication this fall.

Simultaneously, my co-curated group exhibition, Sequesterings, just opened at the Center for Visual Art in Denver. The exhibition features three new series of mine alongside a sweeping, 27-foot-long wall relief. These bodies of work include clear, hand-woven structural forms made from sliced PET bottles, the bottle-cap Encapsulates, and the interactive Toy Sculpture. Further ahead, my focus will pivot to developing work for a solo exhibition in 2027 at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga and to curating another exhibition of Project Vortex artists at St. Lawrence College.

External Links Disclaimer: The content in SchoolArts magazine represents the views of individual authors and artists, selected for publication by the editorial team. The resources provided are to support the teaching of art in a variety of contexts, and therefore, links to external sources are included. As such, any linked content is not monitored by SchoolArts and should be previewed by a professional before sharing with students.

Written by Karl Cole, Art Historian and Curator of Images at Davis Publications. kcole@davisart.com