tending to moss

This project idea came from a place of noplace — formerly based on a foundation of uncertainty and questions of access. Through the collective experience of visiting Moss, specifically Galleri F15, I felt myself distant; capable of coming up with ideas, but missing something embodied and earned.

A tangent: Between then and now I fell into an internet video deep-dive of people cleaning beaches with homemade sifting tools and by hand. Plastics are nothing new, but for some reason in that moment I felt completely suffocated by its harm. Then and there I promised to go about my day-to-day without the consumption of plastics for one month, to begin, only using up what I had already purchased from before (shampoo, creams, bags of bulk foods).

This led me to the next day where I would leave to visit Moss feeling fiery and sad, but also with expectations to hold myself accountable. I packed a little lunch so not to buy anything there, and carried on my way which would eventually be a 6 hour walk along the perimeter of Jeløy Island. Here I raked a public bocce ball court, picked up nurdles (tiny plastic pellets used for packaging) with my hands, and collected a large plastic bag destined for the ocean floor. This blue bag rested in my left hand for the remainder of the walk.

Three hours in, walking west towards the coast, I sighted a person sitting around a series of white buckets. She was sifting the sands for ‘risk’ also known as contaminants that exist in the worms living in local clay. She told me she moved here from Brazil to work as a water researcher for NIVA.

As I leave her it is clear that I must learn this place by spending time with the Island’s borders and scars.

And so I will tend to Moss.








project proposal →

Tending to Moss is a cleaning practice and performance spanning set time. It is a committed sand-sifting experience along the dispersed beaches of Moss, removing microplastics and other debris with the help of a tool. Microplastics are small pieces of plastics that have entered the ocean as pollutants and, over time with sun and tide, break down. They exist everywhere — floating invisible in our drinking water — and are posing a real threat to marine species.

American conservationist Marc W. Ward, with his not-for-profit organization, is one of many who have influenced the process of clearing debris from the ocean and fostering an environmental restoration. Ward has invented a patented static charged filtration system. These systems are manually operated by two people. On a basic level it consists of two metal poles with a piece of polymer fabric facined and draped between. With the tool laying flat, a top coat of sand is shoveled onto the polymer, and the operators raise the poles. They alternate between lifting and lowering their arms, slowly sifting the sands and creating a low level of static catching even the smallest of microplastics. From here you can dump the remains into a bucket or some form of collector, and you begin the process again.

Ward has offered to ship me a filtration system, and has guided me towards what sites in Moss would work well with the tool — avoiding rocky beaches completely. He has also generously shared tips on how to examine the beaches for best extraction based on water flow and point of land.

All of these efforts are towards the narrative of what it means to perform productive choreographies. Considering the difference between performance and action, positioning myself with writer Schechner through the lens of Cvejić and Vujanović, I care to explore the expression of performance as showing doing rather than just doing.[1] Acknowledging that an “act/action and a performance operate in different degrees of publicity and different registers of discursive order of society,” and using performance as a capacity to share knowledge and inform futures.[2]

Some methods involved in performing productive choreographies are durational walks (following path or felt-path), reciting accumulative repetitive movements, sharing body knowledge through collective experience, and more generally improvisation. Here improvisation can exist as one self or selves moving within a set or symbolic duration in an informative setting; improvisation as exposure of inter-relationships through performing the body-archive(s).

This act/action/performance can be framed as a Reciprocal Spatial Practice.








project plan →

Tending to Moss is a practice that has already begun, and will continue into May 2022. The process will take shape independently and with the invitation of a collaborator to use the filtration system, together. This collaborator will be determined based on availability and interest, while leaving room for the right person to arrive into this project.

Sørstranda (most recommended), Gullholmsundet, Bredebukt, Albystranda (the beach closest to Galleri F15), and Fiskestranda will be the focal sites. With the support of Ward, these beaches appear to have the most promise for significant microplastic density making landfall. Alone and with a collaborator, we will sift the sands both performing productive choreographies and leaving residues of our actions as ephemeral markings on the shore line.

This process will be dependent on the weather and exposure of the beaches during the winter months into spring. I have expensed a total 10 trips to Moss (8 remaining) which will also support the few times my collaborator will join me. Based on my experience of visiting Moss, it is important to stay long days there to fully involve a walking practice around her borders. The amount of visitations will be based on how successful our collections are. This notion of success revolves around sand quality — it is easier to sift dry sand — and how much microplastic we can extract.

The product of this process will exist in visual and written documentation — captured via videography and photography through drone and standard camera technologies. With the level of accessibility Galleri F15 lacks, it is important this project aligns with my values and provides a wide range of access points for engagement. The results of Tending to Moss will live both on an internet domain and in a small instructional zine. The zine will host DIY approaches to making filtration systems and general tips for beach collection. Upon confirmation, this zine will be available inside the gallery. The domain will be constructed throughout the process, and finalized before the opening date.

In the meantime, the filtration system will be sent to Canada arriving in December. In Tkaronto I will perform some tests on local beaches, deciphering the potentiality of the tool, how to control how it leaves sand-marks, and its choreographic potential for both action and collaborative movement.



→ december: test filtration system in Tkaronto with documentation and potentially community engagement→ january: research around productive choreographies continues, research + develop DIY approaches to filtration systems
→ february: research around productive choreographies continues, put the energy out there for a collaborator
→ march: begin web development for blog and zine
→ april: weather dependent: start sifting process with documentation
→ may: weather dependent: continue sifting process with documentation, perform a showing-doing, develop web + zine, engage community with results







footnotes →

1  Cvejić Bojana and Vujanović Ana, Public Sphere by Performance (Berlin: b_books, 2015), 29.
2  Cvejić Bojana and Vujanović Ana, 29.

references →

Cvejić Bojana, and Vujanović Ana. Public Sphere by Performance. Berlin: b_books, 2015.

image descritions + credits →

1 Marc and Rachel Ward along the Oregon Coast sifting with the filtration system. There is some water, trees, and blue skies in the background. Photo credit: Sea Turtles Forever.

2 A black and white image of Jeløy Island. The background is black and the island is fully white. Text reads clockwise: Sørstranda, Gullholmsundet, Bredebukt, Albystranda, Fiskestranda. Image courtesy of the artist.