Join Guild Hall Community Artists-in-Residence, Brenna Leaver, Julian Alvarez, and Devon Leaver for a roundtable discussion on the changing face of the Hamptons. Topics will include the death of “mom & pop shops,” the transformation of East Hampton’s store fronts, local legends, and the future of our community.

The topics discussed and experiences shared will act as source material for the creation of the artists new short film, Apex Ape.

About Apex Ape
The Apex Department Store is an imposing white ziggurat and local landmark in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, built in 1969. In response to the advent of online shopping, the core of the Apex Department store slowly receded through the years, leading to its permanent closure in 2021. On a warm summer night in 1986, witnesses saw a massive albino ape scaling the side of the ziggurat. The merit of the building–whether nostalgic, or an eyesore–is highly contested, but nobody discusses what will happen to the Ape when his habitat is destroyed.

Apex Ape is an original creature and film compiling documentary interviews with local residents, and dramatic footage that captures the Ape’s last dance before his home is demolished. Apex Ape will explore the death of brick and mortar, and the changing nature of consumerism through the lens of dead-malls and local legend. It will examine how the inability to adapt to a changing environment inevitably leaves stragglers in the lurch.

 

Click HERE for full COVID-19 information to review prior to your visit.

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Science Writer and Artist, Erica Cirino speaks about her research and upcoming book, Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis and her recent project with the Bridgehampton Childcare & Recreation Center on view in Guild Hall’s Education Corridor.

This talk is programmed as part of the July 15 Guild Hall After Hours.

Appealing to readers of Carl Safina and Elizabeth Kolbert, Erica Cirino’s Thicker Than Water is a riveting nonfiction debut that takes you to the front lines of Earth’s plastic pollution crisis!

Plastic is everywhere—it’s in our food containers, keyboards, glasses, even our toothbrushes. It’s lightweight, versatile, and so cheap that we often forget how much it permeates our lives. But our relationship with plastic is not a healthy one, and our worldwide reliance on it is affecting our planet. The oceans swirl with plastic detritus; scientists have discovered dead whales with stomachs filled with plastic bags, seabirds eating plastic lights, and turtles suffocating on plastic straws stuck in their nostrils. Less obvious, but potentially just as deadly, are the plastics that break down in the ocean into small particles over time, called microplastics. These tiny pieces contain toxic chemicals that are released into the bodies of wild animals and travel up the food chain into fish and other creatures, eventually making their way onto our plates and into our stomachs.

Thicker Than Water charters a course through some of the key sites in the fight against plastic pollution—from the ocean currents dotted with trillions of tiny plastic pieces to research centers across the globe working on plastic alternatives. Readers will be exposed to the shocking extent of plastic contamination in our environment and ecosystems, but will also be introduced to the scientists, advocates, innovators, and ordinary citizens who are trying to solve the problem.