Value of Discard- Isle of Wight Original by Ken Prust

Gilded resin, clear resin
 
If it sparkles it’s expensive.
 
Value of discarded - Isle of Wight - a reflection upon our assignment of value.
 
We assign value; monetary, emotional, spiritual etc to all that we own. In Value of discarded I utilise gilding to question perceptions of value. Connotations and associations of gilding; opulence, extravagance, religion, etc.
 
Within the petri dish are gilded casts of plastic debris found in approximately 3msq on my local beach. Such ‘dots’ of discarded colour are common and are scoured from the shoreline during ‘beach cleans’. Yet, they have ‘companions’ in the ocean depths ever eager to join them.
 
They are a legacy. Once wanted but now discarded; a ‘blight’ that we created.
 
Bestow upon these ‘dots’ a value associated with wealth not waste and, like treasure, they will become rarer; objects of desire and reverence. Yet beneath the ‘veneer of wealth’ they are but ‘worthless scraps’.
 
Who and what, defines the value of a ’scrap’ ?
 
These objects with, value re-assigned, are but a snapshot of five minutes on a beach. Yet now, they art pieces for display.
 
As you read, a myriad ‘dots’ of discarded roll upon our shores.
 
(Irony; the casting process resulted in inevitable, discarded, failures).