Peter Salera

A.E.P. – 49351 – AMALGAMATED EARTH PROGENY #49351

Amalgamated Earth Progeny (A.E.P.) – 49351 is a speculative art object examining electronic waste as a textile material. Composed of extension cords, phone charging cables, ethernet cord, and other flexible forms of electronic waste gathered from around New York, the piece was made using hand-knitting and hand-sewing techniques, utilizing wires as yarn. Formed to mimic the double vortex geometry of the Andromeda galaxy, the piece is designed to look across time, juxtaposing the temporality of the body and the craft-based methodology that created it with the permanence of the materials that comprise it. Serving both as a remnant of the imaginaries of now obsolete technologies, and as an example of a ‘seed’ for post-planetary colonization, A.E.P. – 49351 explores electronic waste not merely as an inefficiency in system design, but as a progeny of the Anthropocene.

Peter Salera is a textile designer and artist with a particular interest in all types of waste, and the knitted form. A New Hampshire native, his work is centered on unraveling, examining, and challenging the complex relationships between the natural and human-centric worlds. His material explorations are grounded in processes of gathering, renewal, and up-cycling as he seeks to use unconventional or forgotten materials to propose new methodologies of making using waste as a textile material.

salem210@newschool.edu