CAB Art Gallery at UNCW

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Installed in front of our building, Sarah Peoples “Plastic Rainbow” is a sculpture composed of colorful recycled industrial and post-consumer plastics stacked in matching, multicolor stripes that form an arch. First exhibited in 2012, the work has developed as an ongoing reflection of current events and site-specific content. 
 
Rainbows have held symbolic weight across cultures for centuries. In contemporary life, the symbol has been continually reactivated by the LGBTQ+ rights movement and, more recently, as an expression of solidarity with healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. It appears in art-historical traditions such as American Romanticism, where it evoked manifest destiny and the untouched promise of the vast American landscape. In religious and spiritual parables, most notably in the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, the rainbow marked a divine covenant of peace following the flood. 

A naturally occurring phenomenon, rainbows form when sunlight refracts, reflects, and disperses through atmospheric water droplets. In Plastic Rainbow, the phenomenon is presented in mass-produced plastics. Foregrounding the tension between the manufactured and the natural, plastic, as the antithesis of the organic world, becomes the material through which a universally beloved symbol is constructed, inviting viewers to consider the symbol of collective identity and promise refracted, reflected and dispersed through a distinctly ubiquitous and damaging material. Mass-produced, single-use plastics are derived from fossil fuels, releasing greenhouse gases during the refining and manufacturing process. Plastics break down slowly, emitting methane gas as they degrade and leaving traces of their inorganic compounds across the natural world. Plastics absorb into soils and travel through aquatic ecosystems leading to toxicity, animal entanglement and ingestion.

Plastic Rainbow draws on these accumulated and conflicting ideas. While invoking unity, hope, peace, and collective resilience, Peoples quietly questions the conditions under which such symbols are made, mass-produced and consumed by American culture.

A big thank you to Bain for installing

In “Through the Oyster Speculum”, Sarah Peoples identifies the stories that reflect belief and desire, signal belonging and virtue, and expose what lies beneath the surface of American identity. Her works reveal how myths of the untouched wilderness, progress, and divine purpose continue to shape collective perception even as contradictory facts become visible. Instead of authoritatively confirming or denying any particular perspective, Peoples embraces ambiguity, allowing competing realities to occupy the same space with humor, play, and curiosity throughout the exhibition. This multifaceted body of work requires viewers to confront not only the stories America tells about itself, but also to confront their own role in how these stories are sustained, questioned, or reimagined. 

On view until September 9

Take break from the summer heat and experience “Through the Oyster Speculum” a solo exhibition by Sarah Peoples

With 4 bodies of work on view accompanied by Morgan Hobbs detailed exhibition writings, People’s invites you to interact, inspect, and immerse yourself in the oyster speculum and see through the lens of culture, history, and desire.

Summer gallery hours are Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. - closed on Fridays (until August 10)