ODC Theater: Lobby Night: Richard Lang and Judith Selby

Since 1999 Richard Lang and Judith Selby Lang as a collaborative team have been visiting Kehoe Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California.They have rambled 1000 meters of tideline of this one beach hundreds of times to gather plastic debris washing out of the Pacific Ocean and from this one beach have collected over two tons of material. By carefully collecting and “curating” the bits of plastic, they fashion it into works of art that matter-of-factly show, with minimal artifice, the material as it is. The viewer is often surprised that this colorful stuff is the thermoplastic junk of our throwaway culture.

In 2010 we visited “Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces” from the Musee d’Orsay at the De Young Museum.

The nearly 100 crowd-pleasing paintings in the exhibit are the antecedents of what is one of the most popular (and recognizable) styles of art. With luxurious brushstrokes and gorgeous pastel colors, it is hard to imagine why Impressionist paintings and Post- ever evoked disdain and outrage. Today we thrill at the fanciful bustle dresses from the late 1800s and marvel at the similarity of their sashay to the balloons we often find on the beach.

Against the muted tones of the gallery walls, we were especially awed by the brilliance of the posed and poised stately figures of women which sent us on a reverie of other flourishes and les grand dames of la Belle Epoch.

Intrigued by the thought of our balloons on display as sashaying dancers, we photographed this series.

These balloons found on Kehoe Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore are bright curiosities picked out from the washed ashore mess, from the tangle of flotsam and jetsam. The little tattered balloons once signified transitions: joyous or grief struck. Many, with ribbons still knotted on, belies their notoriety for flimsy ephemerality. Their remains are hardly mute: they say, “Yes, that is gone, and that is gone too.” For us, finding all of them on one isolated beach, they are strangely fraught with the delight of discovery.

What moves us to action? Surely, we need to know the bad news about plastic pollution of which these balloons are just a tiny bit, but it’s life’s celebratory moments that build the ever-growing pool of energy needed to counter the environmental challenges at hand. It’s the dance in preparation. The balloons, we so often find, struck us one day as little dancers—flamenco, ballroom, yes! That’s it. “Yes, I will…” says the Samba balloon, “watch me.”