Cabinet of Artificial Curiosities: Future Artifacts | 2024-present
Exhibit: Welcome to Wherever You Are
Manly Art Gallery & Museum, Sydney, Australia
6 June – 27 July 2025
This exhibition foregrounds the work of artists who enfold time and space, positioning us in relationship to an “environment” that is shaped by cultural, spiritual, political, social, and intellectual forces. | Art and Culture, Collective for Environmental Art & Design, MAG&M current exhibition
In a contemporary nod to Albertus Seba, Rhea Alexander's Cabinet of Artificial Curiosities: Future Artifacts catalogues urban plastic waste as future artifacts, elevating discarded single-use objects to symbols of societal values and environmental impact. A trans-disciplinary artist, Alexander has spent decades exploring human interaction with the environment through found objects. Her latest project, a visual and archival documentation of plastic debris across New York City, transforms mundane trash into meaningful cultural artifacts.
Over several years, Alexander meticulously mapped and journaled the locations of these objects, adopting the lens of an urban archaeologist and ethnographer.
Her drawings and collections reflect on our fleeting use of materials designed to last centuries, revealing a profound dissonance between convenience and consequence.
Blending sculpture, collage, photography, and drawing, her work mimics the language of scientific cataloguing and natural history displays. Through allegory, dark humor, and references to popular culture, she challenges our unconscious assumptions about nature and consumption. The materials--ranging from high-density polyethylene to laminated papers and moulded plastics--mirror the synthetic permanence of the Anthropocene. Alexander's practice challenges viewers to reconsider the ecological cost of our disposable culture and the legacy we are leaving for future generations.
