SUMMER SERIES: THING THING DESIGN STUDIO

During July of 2019, Temple Children had the honor of hosting Simon Anton, Rachel Mulder and Eiji Jimbo, of Thing Thing — an experimental design collective based in Detroit. Their work focuses on site-specific exhibitions surrounding waste, making, creativity and place. ‘Plastic’s a Beach’ is an installation created during their two-week immersive residency and is made of plastic, sand and glass collected from Kamilo Beach on the Big Island. The installation was exhibited as part of our ‘Kindred Spirits: Exploring People, Places and Planet Earth’ exhibition at the East Hawaii Cultural Center in November of 2019.

“When we talk about plastic we are talking about humanity's place in our planet. We are inextricably linked - the land, the ocean, the volcanoes, the weather, the animals, the plants, the people and our plastic waste - all of these elements are intertwined. The pieces in the collection are fragmentary portraits of our place, time and the often horrifying integration of the man-made world and the natural. They are material hybrids combining recovered plastic, sand, rocks, shells, and bits of ephemera.The plastic was gathered by hand on Kamilo Beach and the forms are sculptural reliefs of lava rock. These strange masks are made of the beach but are also made of our entire world.” - Thing Thing.  

Special thanks to the Kunimura Family and Lizzy Workman for making this installation possible.