Art Adrift

Four years ago, as she walked along black sand beaches of the Big Island of Hawaii, Pam Longobardi was shocked by what she found littering the once pristine shoreline. Strewn across her path were plastic garbage and huge mounds of netting.

For Longobardi, who has focused on the collision between humans and the natural world for more than 20 years, the washed-up debris was an opportunity to create art with a message about our population and its pollution.

Longobardi began her "Drifters Project" by taking photographs of what she saw on the shores. She then began organizing beach cleanings and designing installations featuring the trash she finds.

Her thought-provoking exhibits have been displayed around the world.

"I want people to think about our planet's future and where plastic goes when it leaves our hands," said Longobardi, who has taught art at GSU since 1997. "It is interacting in the natural world in ways that are detrimental to it and us."

A compilation of her work is available in a new book, "Drifters: Plastics, Pollution, and Personhood," scheduled for release this fall.

One example of Longobardi's impactful art installations using marine debris is "Eye Test Chart: Color blindness," which has red plastic pieces encircled by blue and teal shards, replicating an actual color blindness chart. 

"Plastic is attractive and that's why it sells - we covet it and love it," Longobardi explains. "We really are blind to this enormously complicated way that it exists after we have a short relationship with it."

Lately, Longobardi has been focusing on netballs, massive webs of discarded fishing nets that get tangled in the surf and wash ashore in large mounds. She cuts them up to make larger structures called "DriftWebs."

Beyond her art, Longobardi is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of a think tank to develop ways to reduce contaminants in marine waterways and restore coastal ecosystems and habitats.

"Everybody can pick up a few things from the beach that don't belong there and it will be one less thing that's going to end up in a sea turtle or a fish on your dinner table," she said.