Miami Design District, Miami, FL
A monumental version of one of the crushed red Solo cups in Crown’s SOLO TOGETHER oeuvre, JOKESTER 2 was installed in the heart of Miami’s Design District during Miami Art Week 2018. The 10-foot site-specific sculpture had its debut earlier in the year in Aspen, where it served to disrupt the scenic beauty by increasing awareness of consumption, waste, pollution, and the dangers of single-use plastics.
The large-scale piece acts as a stop sign, encouraging individuals to pause and examine how we shape our world, how our world shapes us, and the marks we leave behind. “Single-use plastics and our insatiable appetite for natural resources continue to threaten our environment, and, frankly, our existence,” said the artist. Her installation is intended to prompt viewers to ask: ”What happens to all the plastic we use only once and toss?” “Who cleans it up?” “What are the permanent traces we leave behind?”
As part of The Surfrider Foundation’s social media-based “Rise Above Plastics” campaign, the public was asked to post photos of JOKESTER 2 on Instagram. For every image shared, one pound of plastic waste was cleaned off the Miami beaches.
Crown’s series represents her continued focus on environmental sustainability, civic engagement and responsibility, and the exploration of intangible forces that connect and define us.