Journey Within
In the 1966 science fiction film “Fantastic Voyage,” a team of doctors were miniaturized and injected into a patient to repair a blood clot in his brain. Along the way, they journeyed through alveoli and arteries and fought off white blood corpuscles. The special effects were kitschy by today’s standards — materials like Cheerios and strawberry milk were used to achieve the film’s biological visuals — but for its day, “Fantastic Voyage” was incredible, creepy and fascinating. “The Great Indoors,” an installation at Rice Gallery by Aurora Robson, achieved a similar effect as the artist took low-tech rubbish and transformed it into a disconcerting wonderland.
Robson took low-tech rubbish and transformed it into a disconcerting wonderland.
Using 15,000 stacked, shredded and riveted plastic bottles, Robson crafted an environment of translucent tunnels and chambers. Walking through it felt like an exploration of the body of a giant organism. To find inspiration for her work, Robson researched medical illustrations and explored the Centers for Disease Control Web site. The colors of her constructions — visceral reds, pinks and greens — lent a fantastical feel to the work as light passed through the vibrant plastic forms.
In creating her work, Robson had to wash each plastic bottle and remove its label and any residual adhesive. She then cut the bottles and used heat to bend and stretch them and rivets to fasten them together. Green ginger ale and Sprite bottles found their way into the mix, but when Robson wanted to vary the hues of the clear bottles she took out her airbrush to give her constructions smooth, translucent tints.
Ribbed water bottles were linked together to create arching tubes that resemble ringed tracheas. Smaller tubes looked like capillaries. Networks of bottle bottoms created clusters of cells and other physiological features, and organic tunnels led to a domed center chamber where a glowing red, heart-like organ dangled. Other vaguely spherical constructions resembled giant viruses, many of which were, like the “heart,” illuminated by solar-powered LED lights.
There was an unobtrusive environmental angle to Robson’s work. Eight out of 10 plastic water bottles become landfill waste, and even when they are recycled, the recycling process itself consumes energy. Robson not only recycled the bottles in a creative way, she also used nontoxic water-based paint and solar-powered lights to further “green” her art. She used her materials so beautifully and transformed them so effectively, however, that “eco-art” was the installation’s least obvious aspect.
In creating a world that evoked the amazing internal environments of our bodies, Robson gave visitors tickets to a fantastic voyage they could take for themselves.