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Eloise Janssen: Union Hall Exhibition

Eloise J Trash Study
Eloise Janssen: Trash Study 

Recently, Stamps Professor Nick Tobier has been showcasing work by Stamps students in the windows of Union Hall (208 W. Liberty St., Ann Arbor). The current Union Hall Exhibition, Trash Studies, presents work by Eloise Janssen (BA 21). The exhibition can be viewed at any time of day from Liberty Street March 1 – 21, 2021 or on the Union Hall Exhibitions Instagram page.

In her statement, Janssen writes: 

Now is a time of unmatched production of plastics. This massive production, matched with an inadequate system of collection, has created unprecedented polluting to the earth. The pieces I collect that have washed up from seas are the tangible pieces of plastic trash. The real issues are the pieces that have broken up and now float into life. Though not the leading cause of the seas choking, these large, still intact pieces are the start to the issue and a lens into the people who made them. Archaeology is a means to understand the people of the past through their material cultures. What finds its way into the ground is usually trash left behind or forgotten. It is a way for us to understand the personas who lost these items. Archaeologists can take an object and tease out the making of the culture it came from based on materials and making techniques, and so much more. It allows people’s histories and truths that were not written down or remembered to be documented and told. What story will and can be said from this trash?

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