After the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, fishing lures collected dust on bait store shelves, and fishing boats around the region idled. Marine life choked in the oil-polluted water.

In Plastic Gulf, the decoy becomes the protagonist. Fishing lures forage in a false plastic eden of lush ocean reeds. Without real fish to unmask their imposture, their puppet-like movements simulate life.n the Pacific Ocean there is a vast island of plastic garbage. Plastics are made from oil.Even before the oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zones were growing, fed by fertilizer runoff carried by the Mississippi River from industrial farms in the Midwest.We place a lot of faith in the regenerative powers of the ocean. We want to believe we can restore what we ruin.In the battle for conservation resources, fish have trouble engaging human sympathies. These plastic fish flirt with the viewer, resist being ignored.