Panel Discussion: The Secret Life of Trash

Panel discussion 'The Secret Life of Trash' took place on Thursday, May 30 at 6:00-7:30pm at the Greenpoint Library and their Environmental Education Center, co-organized with KODA. We discussed how awareness about the relationship between production, consumerism & waste translate to action.

Panelists included artist Sari Carel and Laura Mott, a professor at CUNY School of Law. The panel was moderated by Nicholas Hoynes, a PhD student in Sociology at NYU.

This panel discussion was a part of 'Sari Carel: A More Perfect Circle'’s programming. Artist and activist Sari Carel presents a series of ceramic sculptures inspired by the single-use coffee cup, a ubiquitous object that brings into focus people’s daily experience of interacting with trash. Organized by KODA, curated by Jennifer McGregor, and co-presented by Lentol Garden and Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center in Brooklyn, Sari Carel: A More Perfect Circle was on view April 20-June 30, 2024 at Lentol Garden (178 Bayard St, Brooklyn). A satellite exhibition that shows behind the scenes of this project was on view at Greenpoint Library through June 3, 2024.

This event was for ages 16+. Please note this event will be photographed and recorded.

Sari Carel is a Brooklyn-based, multimedia artist and environmental activist whose projects consider interspecies communication, relationships between people and place, and how the senses inform perception. Recent exhibitions include The Sun Is A Mouth Of Blue at Melanie Flood Projects, Portland, OR; The Shape Of Play, a public art project in Boston’s North End, and Mud Songs For Anni at The Schneider Museum Of Art’s Art Beyond in Ashland, OR. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies at Stundars Museum, Solf, Finland; Atelier Stipendium des Bundeskanzleramtes, Vienna, Austria; and Bundanon, Illaroo, Australia; Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY; and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency on Governors Island, NY, among others. She is a recent recipient of a commissions award for Korean Art Forum's 2024-2025 “Shared Dialogue, Shared Space” program.

Laura Mott has taught at CUNY School of Law since 2016, where she teaches Academic Skills, Contracts, Health & Environmental Justice Concentration, and various Legal Writing classes. Prior to teaching, Laura worked at the New York Environmental Law & Justice Project and was a Fellow in the New York City Environmental Law Leadership Institute. Laura holds a B.A. from Rutgers University, Douglass College, a J.D. from CUNY School of Law, and an LL.M cum laude in Environmental Law from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Her developing environmental research uses various social justice lenses to frame inclusive public participation and consultation processes at all levels of environmental decision making. Prior to law school, she worked in archaeology and cultural resource management.

Nick Hoynes is a PhD student in Sociology at NYU. His work uses qualitative methods to study the social construction of environmental problems and the everyday experience of climate change. He is currently working on a project about social responses to the growing threat of ticks and tick-borne illnesses in Maine. Before graduate school, Nick worked as an analyst for the City of New York.