WICKED MONSTROUS DIALOGUES: Part VI
Thursday, June 18 Timebuddy
United States: 9am HDT, 12pm PDT, 1pm MDT, 2pm CST, 3pm EDT
Europe: 20:00 BST, 21:00 CEST, Australia: Friday, June 19, 5:00am AEDT
Anne Katrin Spiess
Andrea Polli
Karen Hackenberg
Tyler Burton
This past spring we have explored 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.
For this sixth and final dialogue, we will hear from four artists, including: Anne Katrin Spiess and her processional Death By Plastic Series, Andrea Polli and her biofoam projects that provide an inquiry into alternatives to traditional polystyrene, Karen Hackenberg who paints plastic waste found along shore lines in the Pacific Northwest, and Tyler Burton and her stratified forms that echo geological layers, fossils, and systems of accumulation.
Each artist will have approximately 10 minutes to present their work, with Q&A with audience participation to follow.
Presenters
Anne-Katrin Spiess creates site-specific installations and performances rooted in a profound relationship to the land. Her practice centers on the human impact on natural systems, exploring themes of desertification, deforestation, trash, burial rituals, and the global single-use plastics crisis. Working across vast desert landscapes and urban environments alike, Spiess uses her body as a medium, producing ephemeral works documented through photography, video, and text. Her socially engaged practice employs direct action to inspire environmental change. Recent exhibitions include Grounded at STRATA Gallery, Santa Fe (2025), As The Lake Fades at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (2024), and the Guemgang Nature Art Biennale, Korea (2020). Residencies in the Amazon, Spain, and Texas have deepened her ecological inquiry. Spiess holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design and lives and works in New York. www.annekatrin.info
Andrea Polli was an artist-in-residence at the Space Department in Nara, Japan in 2025, where she lived in a restored farm house amid rice fields for two months. There she worked with several bio-based materials including rice paper, tsuchi kabe and kanten (agar) to make sculptures. Polli wanted to embed air into bioplastics, a sustainable, plant-based foam material as an alternative to traditional polystyrene plastic foam. While many of these materials formulated to be biodegradable lacked long-term stability by design, she also sought out more stable material that might be used for longer term installations including architecture. Many of the bioplastics she created were fully edible, using materials common to gelatin food preparation in Japan. In her work, she examine materials chemistry including biochemistry to create new forms and unexpected material responses. Her work examines theories and myths related to air across cultures, technology as a bridge between breath on a human scale, air on an architectural scale, and atmosphere on a geologic scale. www.andreapolli.com
Karen Hackenberg grew up along the Connecticut coast, where nature was her playground from a young age, and she has stayed connected to it throughout her life. While studying oil painting (RISD BFA, 1978), she participated in the Artists for the Environment residency program, which focused on appreciating and conserving nature through landscape painting. She designed “green” textiles in San Francisco before moving to Washington State (1992), where she shifted her artistic focus by creating the painting Red Tide—a beached Tide detergent bottle set against the scenic backdrop of the Salish Sea. The ironic clash of subject matter further strengthened the connection between her passions—painting and environmental activism. Represented by Rebecca Hossack Gallery (London) and Patricia Rovzar Gallery (Seattle), Hackenberg exhibits internationally and had a collaborative solo exhibition at Tacoma Art Museum. Her work is in numerous collections, including Portland Art Museum and Paul G. Allen Foundation. www.karenhackenberg.com
E Tyler Burton's work examines the material record humanity is creating in the present moment. Through sculpture, installation, projection, and accumulated consumer materials, Burton considers how everyday objects may persist beyond their intended use, becoming artifacts within a future archaeological record. Central to this practice is the tension between convenience and permanence—how materials designed for brief use can outlast us by centuries. Using discarded plastics, clothing, packaging, and other remnants of contemporary life, Burton creates immersive environments and stratified forms that echo geological layers, fossils, and systems of accumulation. Many works incorporate light, sound, movement, or viewer interaction, allowing installations to function as living systems rather than static objects. Rather than presenting a direct environmental argument, Burton approaches these materials as cultural evidence—traces of behavior, repetition, and collective habit embedded within the physical world, inviting viewers to consider what remains, and what it reveals about our time. www.etylerburton.com
This event is free for members + one guest. $5 for non-members. All participants MUST REGISTER.
