'One Creek's Trash' protest art show against SC gas plant
One Creek's Trash turned Silver Hill Studios into a temporary hub of environmental protest, staging a three‑day show (Aug 28‑30) that fused art with activism against a proposed gas plant and pipeline along the Edisto River. Around fifty works, each built from debris collected during river clean‑ups, confronted visitors with the literal material of the threatened landscape.
The exhibition was as much a community forum as a gallery. Guests received pamphlets, signed petitions, and could add to a collaborative piece, while all sales proceeds were pledged to stop the development. Partnerships with the Charleston Climate Coalition, Microdose the Cooperative and The M.A.R.S.H. Project anchored the show in broader advocacy.
Works spanned sculpture, painting, beaded jewelry and hanging installations, many daringly suspended from the ceiling. Highlights included Maggie Pelton’s pizza‑box painting, Tanya Church Craig’s intricate beaded necklaces, and Carson Brunson’s "Waterbound", a marshscape collage paired with a poem about a low‑country lagoon. Each piece revealed how discarded material can be reshaped into poignant commentary.
Artist statements pinned to the walls gave the exhibition its emotional core, blending personal reflection with a collective call for a different future. The result was a vibrant, slightly eccentric celebration of creativity that proved optimism itself can be a form of protest.