By Louise Irvine
The theme of Earth Day 2022 is Invest in our Planet. A green future is a prosperous future and it needs everyone to create a partnership for the planet and restore nature. Since moving to Florida from New York, artist Jenna Efrein is particularly concerned about the fate of the Everglades ecosystem and advocates for its protection with her glass art installations. Her exhibition The Outside Is In · Upcycled Glass Art and Design by Jenna Efrein opens at WMODA on Saturday, April 23 to mark Earth Day 2022.
Using hundreds of upcycled glass bottles, Jenna Efrein creates art that draws attention to issues of sustainability and environmental pollution. She is elevating the value of nature in our daily lives and reflecting on the deteriorating ecosystem and loss of the local flora and fauna.
Now or Neverglades!
Florida was originally an impenetrable wasteland of marshlands, swamps, and tangled mangrove forests but through dredging and draining, it has become one of the most popular states in the US to live, work, and play. However, the fragile ecosystem is under threat from the rapidly growing metropolitan centers. The Everglades are essential to the region’s tourism economy and quality of life. More than eight million people rely on drinking water so protecting the environment and the imperiled water supply is crucial for the future of Florida.
“Restoration simply cannot wait. It’s Now or Neverglades!” claims Dawn Shirreffs, an Everglades Policy Advisor.
Disoriented
Florida’s marine environment is an ecological and aesthetic jewel with rolling seagrass meadows and vibrant coral reefs. The productivity and health of the reefs are important to our well-being, but global and local pollution is devastating this underwater paradise. Trash is suffocating our oceans, particularly the glut of single-use plastic bottles and bags which confuse sea life. For example, sea turtles eat plastic garbage which they mistake for jellyfish. New-born turtles are disoriented by streetlights, car headlights, and human light pollution that they follow rather than moonlight into the sea. Only 1 in 1000 baby sea turtles survive to mate 10 to 40 years after birth depending upon the species. Jenna’s installation features a stool inspired by a hawksbill turtle and lots of small turtles made of recycled glass.
Swamp Flipped
Swamp Flipped takes a vision of the swamp and re-orients its position. By fusing and hot sculpting recycled bottle glass, Jenna creates a chandelier symbolic of luxury out of seemingly worthless materials. Her functional glass art is inspired by the terrain that the threatened endangered animals inhabit. The shimmering light reflects on water choked with blue-green algae formed of crushed bottle glass. Swimming through the installation are white alligators made from old vodka bottles. In Jenna’s Monument to the Alligator, she asks the question “What if we are the generation to kill the last dinosaur?” “What if the only way we could know about much of the natural world was to go into a museum due to extinction?”
Oh, where art thou dear rabbit…
As well as environmental challenges such as sea-level rise and climate change, invasive species imperil native plants and animals. Burmese pythons are now the dominant predators of marsh rabbits and other small mammals in the Everglades National Park and they are upsetting the balance of a valuable ecosystem. The high reproductive rates of rabbits make them typically resistant to predators, but scientific surveys show that is not the case in Florida. Marsh rabbits used to be abundant in higher freshwater marshes, pinelands, and coastal prairies and could sometimes be seen swimming, having adapted to their wet world. Jenna has crafted marsh rabbits from old beer bottles and “trapped” them in the clear glass bellies of pythons.
Topo Chico
Recently, Jenna has been recycling Topo Chico’s glass bottles and the company has been supporting her exhibitions with their sparkling mineral waters. Legend has it that an Aztec princess was refreshed after a long journey by drinking and bathing in the crystalline waters of the Cerro del Topo and the springs at Monterrey in Mexico have provided mineral-rich water since 1895. You will also be refreshed by Topo Chico’s range of flavored waters and inspired by Jenna’s activism in glass art on Saturday, April 23 from 1 to 4 pm at WMODA.
Celebrate Earth Day 2022 #InvestInOurPlanet
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The Outside is In
