Becky Wilkes, DITCHED

February 29 – March 27, 2020
Artist Talk Saturday, March 21 from 4pm-5pm, followed by a Reception from 5pm-6pm

Camerawork Gallery
301 N. Graham Street, Portland, OR 97227
Located in Lorenzen Conference Center – Legacy Emanuel Medical Center Campus.
9am – 6pm, Monday-Saturday, Sunday, 10am-4pm
Free off street parking available, Stair and elevator access, TriMet Routes 4, 24 and 44, ADA accessible
www.TheCameraworkGallery.org
www.Facebook.com/cameraworkgallery
503-701-5347
Event is free and open to the public

On February 29, Camerawork Gallery will open “Ditched”, from Texas photographer and trash enthusiast, Becky Wilkes. The exhibit will be on view through March 27 and contains 10 of her original obsessions, gleaned from the nearly 6,000 pieces of trash collected by Wilkes during her 1 year “odd-yssey”, when she combed 1 mile of newly revealed lakefront for trash during the multiyear drought of 2014-15.

It was not until spring floods of 2015 that Wilkes understood the migratory nature of trash in our waterways flowing from our drainage ditches and roadways. Eagle Mountain Lake, while only 14 square miles in size, is fed by a watershed of over 850 square miles. Unlike the trash entering our oceans, this debris is trapped inland in our fresh water supply, restrained by lakes and dams.

Wilkes notes, “When I started this project, I had no idea of the depth and breadth of the materials that lay just below the surface of the water. I was continually amazed by the debris that I found. Plastic straws are not our only issue. We are regularly flushing the entirety of our roadside debris into our drinking water.” Wilkes shares. This one-of-a-kind series portrays a vivid, colorful and quantitative statement of the impact of local litter discarded throughout local watersheds.”

“Ditched” was most recently featured at LHUCA, in Lubbock TX where Hannah Dean, founder of The Bowerbird and writer for Glasstire states, “Removed from their half-buried
lakefront sites, water bottles with the all the charm of used condoms suddenly become aesthetic, once they’re scanned, grouped, printed and mounted on Dibond. Weird.”

Becky Wilkes lives with her husband on Eagle Mountain Lake in Azle, TX. Educated as a Chemical Engineer at Texas A&M, she spent much of her life as a stay-at-home mother of four children who have now blessed her with a multitude of grandchildren. Thus began her study of chaos and order. Her current vocation is a blend of urban archeologist, anthropologist, sociologist, trash collector and photographer.