The ceramic vessels on the farming towers act as a relic from a speculative future where the technological ladder becomes inverted. Pottery was our first chemically altered material and its primary use for food preservation has been co-opted by plastics. The ceramic vessel is a relic of a future where plastics were used as a necessary technological step toward sustainable methods. The older coiled technique rises from the stoneware cast styrofoam cup replica as a way to embrace the technological trauma rather than wipe it from memory.

Below, basking in the artificial sun, an orange tree grows through a interlocking plywood and plastic tower. It rises from the milk crate noting the foundational technology of baskets and their importance in shaping the modern world as food infrastructure.

This work is part of the series Mad Science, Happy Alchemy, which explores the abilities of material science and food infrastructure to shape people into communities, the way original potters coiled clay into vessels and chemists formed polymers into packaging, ultimately speculating how the future can be shaped cooperatively through thoughtful making. First Exhibited at Lonsdale Gallery in the group show IN-TE-RI-OR-I-TY  February 28 – March 9, 2019.

Andrew Atkin, Fibracan Amphora on Orange Farming Tower, 2019, Coiled and cast stoneware, milk crate, plywood, LED grow light, orange tree, terracotta, soil

Andrew Atkin, Genpak Amphora on Data Farming Tower, 2019, Coiled and cast stoneware, milk crate, plywood, salvaged electronics

Andrew Atkin, Split Genpak Amphora on Data Farming Tower, 2019, Coiled and cast stoneware, milk crate, plywood, salvaged computer and electronics

Andrew Atkin, Fibracan Urn on Mushroom Farming Tower, 2019, Coiled and cast stoneware, milk crate, plywood, mushrooms, acrylic, ultrasonic atomizer