The Enchanting Microplastics

It has been recently discovered that microplastics have found their way into human blood. We breathe and ingest them – the world around us has entered us. We have become a microcosm of the little planet on which we have wrought so much havoc. In The Enchanting Microplastics, Visaya Hoffie utilises 'plastic' as a signifier for popular culture – deploying a wealth of imagery, media and techniques to convey the way we ingest and regurgitate culture in contemporary life.

For her cast of characters, Hoffie cites a litany of every day subject matter as sources – cars, animals and pets, her friends – among references to literature, popular culture, fashion brands such as Bapesta, television, including The Sopranos, Nathan For You, and children’s books including Penny Pollard, by Robin Klein: “a hot mess of data that’s part-and-parcel of what I’m looking at or thinking about right now.” In her paintings, these characters are rendered in a melange of airbrush, oil, acrylics, ink, crayons, and pencils “to respond to the way forms and surfaces emerge and images coalesce”; while her ceramic sculptural works feature characters influenced by both real and imagined personae, including the eponymous little prince in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s 1943 tale.