Armed with plastic debris gleaned from her local coastal environment, South African-born Joyce Lubotzky confronts the consequences of rampant consumerism through environmental art. Employing photographic, sculptural, archival and curatorial methods within a contemporary still life practice, the artist examines what such discarded items reveal about human behaviour.
“It became clear to me that while these objects reflected the abject consequences of individual consumer habits and desires, collectively, they speak to a broken system,” she says. “They are our collective body of work.”
With a growing list of accolades, 2023 saw Lubotzky chosen as a semi-finalist in the landscape category of the Head On Photo Festival Prize and highly commended in the Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Prize. She has recently completed her masters at the National Art School.
Above: Joyce Lubotzky, To Inflate, 2023. Digital photograph printed on Ilford fibre gloss paper, 80 x 120cm. Courtesy: the artist.