Deborah Wasserman’s performance Dumped: Mother Earth/Queen of Trash, aspires to bring awareness and understanding of the importance of environmental issues to everyone in the context of our busy and demanding lives in a contemporary urban setting.

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In a continuation of her performance art, Wasserman laments society’s increasing disregard of Mother Earth-- the feminine, nurturing principal in nature. The Earth was once revered and worshipped by many cultures and societies around the world. The adoration of the Earth deities-- Isis, Demeter, Gaia, Durga, Frigga, Danu, to name a few- may be considered ‘primitive’ but that reverence, according to Wasserman, was rooted in understanding the importance of the feminine mother element in nature despite the advances of our industrial society.

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Living in the fast post- industrial, capitalistic society of today we seem to have lost our understanding of the importance of “Mother Earth”. In her performance Deborah impersonates the fallen Mother Earth, wearing an 18ft trash cape unto which pedestrians were attaching additional garbage. She was engaging in conversation with passers by, sorting and collecting garbage and giving away free earth and seeds of hope from her dumpster.

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Quoting Evo Morales, the President of Bolivia and an environmentalist:

“Sooner or later, we will have to recognize that the Earth has rights, too, to live without pollution. What mankind must know is that human beings cannot live without Mother Earth, but the planet can live without humans”.