Event 1: Love Letter to a Surrogate

The first event I attended this quarter was “Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate,” at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica. Selected artists wrote a love letter to a fellow member of the art community living on the East Coast. The primary concept of the event was to create a “transcontinental heartbeat across America.” The artist living on the West Coast received letters from artists across the country and interpreted their love letters through a live performance.

                                               Me at the Annenberg Community Beach House

The performance took place on the sand of Santa Monica Beach close to the water. On the sand were several stages made up of buoys marked in a circle. Though the stage was marked, the interpretation of the letter began far outside of the stage. The performers made their way down the sand dressed in iridescent, reflective, headpieces and appeared to be creatures who had emerged straight from the ocean. That was until they came closer and the audience was able to see the trailing veil of trash that followed them. The performers slowly made their way down the coast and into the area of buoys. As they circled the artist herself began to play a drum which created a sense of eerieness to the performance. The drum changed the tone because as the music intensified the audience witnessed the creatures fall and die.

                                                          

The performers enter the performance.

The artists play the drum as the performer circles the stage.

The performers fall to the ground and begin to die.

(All photos above were taken by me) 

Conveniently, the day I attended this performance was Earth Day because it was clear that the love letter behind this display was meant for the Earth. From a distance the performers were beautiful just as Earth appears to be. But as soon as I was able to look deeper, I could see the beauty was maimed by the careless trash and pollution that followed. It was powerful to see the creatures slowly become weaker and become dragged down by the pollution that draped over them.

The message sent through this performance was extremely powerful. It's no surprise to anyone that humans have taken a toll on the health of earths environments. The artists interpretation of the letter made it so the message was so clearly displayed. I was inspired to look deeper into the issue, I found several educational youtube videos which spread awareness about the amount of trash we produce. I found that it is highly important that we need to take action as soon as possible in order for our oceans and ocean life to become heathy and avoid what the artist interpreted. 

                        A plastic band restricts the growth of a blue-striped grunt fish in the Caribbean Sea.

Karen Doody/Stocktrek Images

Sources

“Ocean Pollution and Marine Debris.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/ocean-coasts/ocean-pollution.

“Plastic Oceans | What Is the Impact of Pollution in the Sea?” YouTube, YouTube, 9 Sept. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTDvqaqPlM&ab_channel=ABCScience.

Reddy, Simon. “Plastic Pollution Affects Sea Life throughout the Ocean.” The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Pew Charitable Trusts, 24 Sept. 2018, www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/09/24/plastic-pollution-affects-sea-life-throughout-the-ocean.

“Swept Away: Love Letter to a Surrogate.” Visit Santa Monica, www.santamonica.com/event/swept-away-love-letter-to-a-surrogate/2023-04-22/.

“Where Does Your Trash End up?” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Mar. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThpxqEvoVzg&ab_channel=TheStoryofStuffProject.