LA Artist Asks Us To See Plastic 'We Are All Eating & Breathing’

LOS ANGELES, CA — If you pass by Honor Fraser Gallery on the Westside you might notice the plastic kids' toys, boogie boards and other sun-bleached items hung like ornaments in a delicate, bright balance. It might feel like nostalgia, but there's much more to the discarded display.

Popup ToyDrive from artist Kenny Scharf explores our consumption of plastics and its deep ties to climate change. It's an ongoing outdoor exhibit at Honor Fraser Gallery, 2622 La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles.

Patch reached out to the artist about the project, and what inspired the conversation around the global climate crisis, pandemic and plastic consumption.

"ToyDrive has been an ongoing project that gets added to every two or three weeks depending on how much plastic is accumulated and ready for display," Scharf told Patch.

"The consumption of disposable plastics is an ongoing problem that is closely tied to climate change and the pandemic," Scharf said. "Petroleum consumption is the main cause of climate change and plastic is made out of petroleum. The more we disrupt the natural balance and order in our environment the more chances that pandemics will become more common and more frequent."

There's a goal to this arrangement and process.

"My goal was to create something that not only is colorful and fun to look at with all the associations related to toys and playing but also to bring focused awareness to the huge problem facing the globe with plastic insipidly becoming not only a part of our landscape of garbage and our oceanscape but the fact that these plastics have broken down into microplastics that we are all eating and breathing as well," Scharf told Patch.

Microplastics, and plastic particles, exist from spaces in our homes to outside, but there's still not enough research on how it impacts our health, The Washington Post reports.

Scharf was born in 1958 in Los Angeles and lives in Los Angeles. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts, New York in 1980. Honor Fraser Gallery has presented four exhibitions of Scharf's work to date: Born Again (2015); Pop Renaissance (2013); Hodgepodge (2012); and Barberadise (2009). His work has been presented at locations around the world.

To learn more about the gallery and artist visit www.honorfraser.com.

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