“Our coastlines are beautiful, wonderous places. As a surfer and an artist, they offer not only sport but discovery; for each passing wave washes up clues of a beautiful, and alien world hiding below the surface. Spiraling bits of shell, strange bone, sea-weathered and eaten pieces of driftwood and rock are awe-inspiring evidence of the diverse, vibrant life living in the shallows.
As we look to the stars, ever searching the great beyond for life, we humans engage in an unprecedented chemistry experiment that is reshaping our planet’s air and water. Rapidly changing the only known harbor of life, so quickly, that it threatens to extinguish vast ecosystems. Potentially transforming our oceans into acidic, lifeless deserts and drowning our coastlines in plastic and ever-increasing seas. How shallow are we?
Through my work, I reject that day, and dream of a future where we once again live in harmony with nature. My assemblages, made of seashore debris, are imagined future seascapes and whimsical, biomechanical structures from that harmonious future. Artifacts created to delight viewers and help them rediscover the beautifully alien, living world found in our coastal shallows.”
– Justin Prough
Justin Prough is a Los Angeles based artist who’s work reflects the struggle between sunny days, good waves and the environmental & political unrest of our times.Telling visual stories by connecting ideas with materials and processes that drives his practice. Prough’s work has been exhibited in California and in private collections across the U.S