Anna Scime (b. 1982)

This piece consists of a Scale of Justice inspired structure with what appears to be a mother-of-pearl spoonful of caviar on one side of the scale and an egret feather on the other. The feather, reminiscent of the 'Feather of Ma'at' at the root of the Lade Justice metaphor, lays delicately on the lefthand side of the scale, with a small collection of caviar placed carefully on the right.

Measurements of value and justice are left unanswered by the scale, which remains suspended in a balanced state.

Materials are stripped from nature, represented symbolically and subjected to arbitrary tools and systems of measurement. Sturgeon, once a sustainable food source, became a nuisance by-catch treated as trash and fuel, that became an industrialized food commodity, that became a symbol of status, decadence and wealth, and then ultimately became a symbol of humankind's failure to coexist with nature.

Both the egret and the sturgeon are now symbols of conservation advocacy – the egret of the National Audubon Society, and the sturgeon of the Waterkeeper Alliance – both species almost lost to gross resource mismanagement, habitat destruction and the fashion of the times. In the springtime in the rivers around the Great Lakes, they can be found in the shallows together.

This project is a part of Lake Sturgeons' Guide for Surviving the Anthropocene (LSGFSA).

LSGFSA is generously supported by the Global Warming Art Project grant, Ben Perrone and the Environmental Maze project donors, and administered by the Art Services Initiative of Western New York. It would not be possible without the support of the Lower Great Lakes Fish & Wildlife Conservation Office, US Fish & Wildlife Services (USFWS).