By Adam Jonas Horowitz

From the Stone Age to the Plastic Age . . . The average American produces 2,000 pounds of waste every year.

Inspired by and meant to evoke ancient Egyptian art, Adam Horowitz’s imposing Plastolithic installation – which ran from April 14-June 17, 2024 – offered powerful commentary about the evolution over time into a culture of waste.  The piece was constructed of four mixed waste and recycling bales, each weighing 1,000 pounds, a simultaneously stark and grand visual depiction of the amount of trash an American couple creates annually.  That it greeted visitors as they entered the Railyard Park from the northwest further underlined the incompatibility between the disposable and the sustainable.

“Plastolithic is a symbol of all the waste we make, including nuclear waste,” said the artist and filmmaker.  “I also consider it a public service by hopefully spurring people to think and talk about how to solver a problem that is killing the planet.”