WICKED MONSTROUS DIALOGUES: Part l
Thursday, January 22 Timebuddy
United States: 9am HST, 11am PST, Noon MST, 1pm CST, 2pm EST
Europe: 19:00 GMT, 20:00 CET
Australia: Friday, January 23, 6:00am AEDT
Elise Vazelakis
Christine Mackey
Ruth Peche
This winter/spring we will explore through a series of dialogues, works that our members are making today that engage plastics as a material for reuse, research, and aesthetic inquiry. Artists invited are included in the upcoming ecoartspace book titled Wicked Monstrous, that will launch fall 2026.
This month we will hear from Elise Vazelakis, who will discuss her series Driving with My Eyes Closed using an ancient technique of twining with plastic yarn made from discarded Amazon packaging materials, Christine Mackey who will present work made in response to working on a seaweed farm in South Korea where plastics play a critical role in ocean farming. And, Ruth Peche, who will share her Solastalgia series that explores the tension between organic and synthetic, natural and artificial, handcraft and industrial.
Each presenter will have approximately 15 minutes to discuss their work, then Q&A with audience participation following.
Member presenters:
Elise Marks Vazelakis is a Los Angeles–based artist whose practice centers on transforming repurposed and unconventional materials into textile-based sculptures. Working with discarded plastics, found objects, construction materials, and other overlooked remnants, she blurs the boundary between textile and sculpture. Her work emphasizes material exploration and process, revealing how discarded materials can be reshaped into objects that invite reflection and reconsideration. Marks Vazelakis earned a BS from San Diego State University and an MFA in Fiber from California State University, Long Beach. She has had solo exhibitions in Dubai, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and has participated in group exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago, Toronto, Santa Fe, and Phoenix, among other cities. Her work is included in private and public collections, including the Faisaliah Resort in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. www.elisevazelakis.com
Christine Mackey, based in Ireland, cultivates relational, site-responsive works that engage with the dynamic forces of nature. Through research-led processes, she explores biodiversity loss, extinction, and material crisis, while proposing models of renewal, awareness, and positive change. In 2025, Mackey presented a major solo exhibition at The Model, Sligo, supported by an Arts Council Projects Award. Her recent international residencies and exhibition programmes include CCI Paris, the Jeollanam-do Cultural Foundation (South Korea), DrawInternational (France), the Woodland Symposium Interface (Galway), and Utopiana (Geneva). She is currently involved in the WATERlands Horizon residency programme at UCD, collaborating with artists, scientists, and ecologists on wetland rehabilitation across Europe. Mackey was awarded a Fulbright Creative Research Scholarship, undertaking independent research at cultural, educational, and environmental institutions across the United States. Her work is held in public collections throughout Ireland. www.studiochristinemackey.com
Ruth Peche is a multidisciplinary artist born and based in Madrid. Her practice explores the complex and often toxic relationship between human beings and nature, shaped by control, exploitation, and environmental abuse. Peche examines how progress and consumer culture have led to landscapes profoundly altered by human intervention. Deeply concerned with the saturation of plastic waste, she intercepts discarded materials before they reach the waste stream and transforms them into artworks that question value, responsibility, and ethics. Her work operates at the intersection of artistic practice and environmental activism, denouncing the failure to reduce consumption and the negligent management of plastic pollution. Many of her interventions in natural environments are ephemeral and exist primarily as photographic images, emphasizing both fragility and loss. Through these images, Peche invites viewers to reconsider how landscapes are perceived and decontextualized, and to confront the moral implications of humanity’s relationship with the natural world. She has exhibited in Madrid, Bilbao, Valladolid, Paris, Oslo, Utrecht, and international art fairs. www.ruthpeche.com
This event is free for members + one guest. $5 for non-members. All participants MUST REGISTER.
