Sena Clara Creston

Lives and works in Santa Rosa, CA, USA

Artist statement

Foundling Fodder is an exhibition of photography, robotics, and installations using found nostalgic materials to invite viewers to reflect on what is considered natural in an increasingly mediated world. To articulate the environment’s point of view, I use poignant materials and animate installations. Plastescape is a robotic installation comprised of the Huminal and the Plastic Garden. This enterable landscape is made from plastic, about the escape from plastic. The Huminal is an autonomous robotic sculpture illuminated by LEDs whose motorized wheels walk around the Plastic Garden. When the Huminal senses a viewer; it stops, turns its head towards the viewer and flashes red, voicing displeasure, fear, or aggression. Flowers in the Plastic Garden glow white, opening and closing their petals and leaves smoothly, as if they were breathing. When the flowers sense a viewer, they close their petals and leaves, blink their lights, and shake as if nervous. If the viewer continues to approach, the flowers snap their petals open and closed, strobing their lights as if aggressive. Upon inspection, familiar materials reveal an ambiguous relationship with the viewer. Plastescape is made from used water bottles and Walmart bags; materials known to be harmful to our environment, but consistently used as affordable necessities. I use these materials because of the beautiful light they transmit and the dark reality of consumer waste they reveal. The Umbrellaship is an interactive...

Artwork