Yellow sun, white sand, blue ocean. Ice cream cones and sprinklers, sweet breezes, shady trees, crickets and fireflies. A series of associated and interchangeable tropes, geographically ambiguous, intertwined in the construction and marketing of leisure. In the annual abdication of work, school, life, and ethics (at least for some), beaches and boats, summer houses and amusement parks become the projection for a fantasy of escape and absence of responsibility. As constructed as a screensaver, as ubiquitous as a discounted package holiday, this idea of summer can seem infinitely plastic and artificial. With a nod to playfulness and a wink at the surreal, the nine videos in Plastic Summer both embrace and interrogate the visual language of summer.
Plastic Summer is curated by Stamatina Gregory and Erin Sickler
Image: Jillian McDonald, Apocalypse Zombie (video still), 2009, high definition video, 5:44