My work is fundamentally about keeping hope and joy alive in bleak times. Creatures from a mythic past return to dance among the ruins of our world. It’s macabre, but also serene. In this piece, a group of sirens (and their seal friend) sing together in a sea cluttered with garbage. One siren plays a lyre made from scavenged trash; another helps disentangle her tails from discarded fishing nets and ropes. The offshore oil platform looming in the distance appears to be operational, but it’s unclear who might be running it. The siren’s home is under threat, but their have each other, and they have their song.

I find myself thinking about garbage a lot. The things we leave behind, things which will outlast us—this is a major theme in my work. Even the things we throw away never really go away. Probably almost every plastic toy you had growing up, every plastic soda bottle you’ve drunk from, every keyboard you’ve typed on or phone you’ve spoken through still exists in some form, crushed and partial but still there, gassing out in a landfill or washing up on some far shore; very little plastic actually gets recycled. And since plastic is made from petrochemicals, it’s also part of the fossil fuel industry that continues to do so much damage to our world. Furthermore, a significant percentage of ocean trash is made up of discarded fishing nets—to say nothing of overfishing!

Like the sirens in the image, our home is under threat; things seem bleak. But we have art and we have community. Those things alone won’t save us, yet we won’t get anywhere without them. Hold on to hope; let’s protect our world together!

Kit Curry