Louie Navarro

Lost & Found

Plastic and metal litter are just two examples of the many environmental issues that our planet faces. These bits of trash, representing the necessities, pleasures, and vices of contemporary life, raise important questions: who throws them away, and why do they keep appearing in places where they don't belong? When we see everyday objects like these, both dangerous and unusual, washing up on the beaches of Rosarito (Baja California, Mexico), they seem to float in a state of disconcerting beauty and a sense of unease.

Lost and Found is a catalog of images that blends documentary and art photography into a powerful tool for reflection and protest, infused with a certain irony. Do these photos reflect our ecological nihilism and our increasing tendency to fetishize objects of desire, only to discard them? Louie Navarro's work doesn't sound alarmist, yet he takes a sincere stance in questioning the toxic reality that permeates and weakens the public space we all share. In doing so, he also directly and artlessly reveals the earlier history of how these objects were used, now reduced to litter.

Through his on-the-ground recycling and curatorial efforts, Navarro transforms these trivialities of consumer society, which serve as symbols of progress and comfort, into exhibits of evidence that are partway between advertising and the pop guerrilla actions of the best of Adbusters. These objects represent new opportunities for dialogue, critique, and debate, which are needed to address the unacknowledged discourses of progress, quality of life, and the environmental costs of societal neglect.

Text by: Rafa Saavedra, August 2011