Next Up: Spring Pop-Up Art Market April 20th 11am-5pm

Erica Hoosic

Recycled Plastic Production Mask

Single use plastic, wire and yarn

Artist Statment:

I am deeply invested in the idea of the future being an amalgam of understanding with all matter existing on Earth. Listening to a multitude of voices is important when conceptualizing a point of time where creatures and humankind can continue on to a harmonious life cycle with each other. Speculative Fiction has been a big inspiration for me when imagining how a more continuous, vibrant, and sustainable way of life could be possible. Empathy is a powerful emotion, one that has the power to connect all living things. When placing your emotional being onto another’s situation a sort of hybridity takes place, a connection is made. Being able to imagine feeling from an other’s viewpoint is a gate way into understanding the world around us as a whole.

I was just finishing a collective interactive piece for the “One Earth Film Festival” in Chicago when everyone was just learning about the magnitude of the Covid-19 situation. We made large flowers that you can physically “bloom” out of recycled materials with a message for working together to solve our current planetary disasters. The film festival was cancelled and soon after all of the other exhibitions I had planned for the entire summer. My job has become solely to create online content, and I wracked my brain on how I could help in some way with this new planetary disaster we were all now facing.

I have been creating a series of face masks now out of recycled materials. The masks follow the CDC guidelines and are still made out of recycled materials, this time plastic grocery bags. I feel it’s still important to understand the impact humans have had on the planet and still try to find usefulness in the objects we have created and surrounded ourselves with, especially now. Covid-19 has emphasized for me the global human impact on the Earth and I will continue to try and find ways that we can work together to stay on the path to reverse our impact.

Bio:

Erica Hoosic creates with ideas of speculative fiction in mind. What she creates is usually wearable. She imagines the human form as a celestial body and her jewelry as scaled-down ecosystems. Discarded bits of ephemeral debris are used as materials to make her pieces for the body. Erica Hoosic resides in Akron, OH and studied metalsmithing for her BFA at The University of Akron. She has just completed her Master’s degree in jewelry/ metals/ and enameling at Kent State University. Erica Hoosic’s work has been displayed both nationally and internationally and has been recognized for various awards including the Juror’s Choice Award for Ethical Metalsmith’s 2018 So+Fresh+So+Clean exhibition.