Opening Reception: Friday, February 13th, 2015, 7-11pm

The director of Swampspace, Oliver Sanchez announced today the much anticipated Miami depute of Obvious/Oblivious by Ottilie Mason.
Ms Mason has created large-scale photographs of site-specific tableaux that attempt to expose the mystery, beauty and abuse of water – our most precious natural resource.

“In this project, I am taking an entertaining and provocative approach to environmentalism because in the words of experimental filmmaker Jack Smith, ‘Art must not be used as means of fleeing from thinking… let art continue to be stunning, naturalistic and glamourous – but let it also be loaded with information.” Mason

With OBVIOUS/OBLIVIOUS Mason accesses her experiences in varied disciplines of installation, performance, set & costume design, painting and sculpture for collaborations with photographers Liat Aharoni, Babak Khairi, Brian Patterson, Hill Peppard and George Whiteside.

OBVIOUS/OBLIVIOUS features starkly contrasted, domestic and natural landscapes where the artist’s body appears to become fluid as water itself. Memento Mori of environmental apocalypse, coexist within these seemingly perfect realities and suggest the absence of balance. The substantive topic endangered marine life, and the bio-fouling of the water supply are interrogated by scenes of desertification, garbage atolls and melting polar ice. We see a kitchen being consumed in a sea of jellyfish and a table over-flowing with the fruits of the sea as if set for a Caligula feast.

A portion of the proceeds from sale of the artworks will be donated to 5 Gyres Institute a non-profit organization based in LA and dedicated to the elimination of plastic waste in the world’s oceans and watersheds.