The artwork Stranger to the Trees addresses the urgent, ubiquitous and pervasive issue of microplastic in the environment. Recent discoveries show that microplastics are found in high concentrations in the human brain and sex organs, as well as in the air and on top of mountains. But what does microplastic in the environment mean for long-lived non-human species? In Stranger to the Trees, Kat undertook to understand how trees and microplastics interact and coexist in the time of the climate crisis.
This artwork, realised between 2020-2022 through the EMAP / EMARE Programme at WRO Art Center and Module D funding from Neustart Kultur, consists of a multimedia sculptural and interactive installation alongside a groundbreaking scientific publication showing for the first time that microplastics move from soil into tree roots.
Read more about Stranger to the Trees at Falling Walls
Ouroboros addresses the urgent need to replace plastic in our lives, and to develop sustainable ways of sharing sound and music. Developed with Fara Peluso through our S+T+ARTS Repairing the Present residency, Circular Records, Ouroboros speaks to the cyclical nature of the material and of human relationships with the environment by developing a bioplastic replacement for vinyl. The ouroboros is known as a symbol of renewal and rebirth, the emblem of chaos around a world of imposed order. At a time when industrialised activity exerts order on the planet, the impulse of the changing climate will bring a global supra-human chaos to the way that humans can exist.