Exploring how contempary artist's have responded to Plastic Pollution and Enviromental Crisis:

HAD231 - Art In Society, Theory And Context (2019/0 - Sunderland - ASUND - SEM3) -

Exploring how contempary artist's have responded to Plastic Pollution and Enviromental Crisis:

The past few years I have been deeply concerned around the topic of plastic pollution and what it is doing to our environment. I believe that I am so focused on this subject due to the lack of awareness upon it and how it gets pushed under the carpet, I feel that this is a result of it being an out of sight out of mind situation. With me, an artist myself, being incredibly devoted to exploring the crisis within my work leaves me passionately interested in the response from other artists around the World.

Tiana Dorian - Untitled, 2019.

Artwork by me, Photographs taking by me.

As an artist I love to produce work that means and shows something, I am fascinated how one piece of work can speak 1000 words so I believe that is why I am so invested in developing awareness into my art. I began to surround myself with research upon saving the sea so that I had a build of information which I could link into my work. My work ranged from: paintings, sculptures, prints and more. For my painting’s I wanted to add a unique touch to them which reflected the damage that the pollution was causing to our Sea and our Sea animals, to do this I collected as much rubbish as I could then combined it into my paintings. I created paintings which showed animals: coming in contact with forgine objects, entangled in pollution, losing their habitats and so much more! One of my favourites was a little sculpture I made which was a Fish made completely out of rubbish, I gave my Fish transparent skin by using cling film so that you could see inside of it, then I filled it up using rubbish such as: Plastic bottle lids, wrappers, forks and so on. My aim for my Fish Sculpture was to highlight the fact that sea animals are thinking the pollution is food and consuming it then later dying from it.

Tiana Dorian - Ocean Suffocation,2019.

My artwork and photographs.

Plastic was first invented back in 1907 by a man named Leo Hendrik Baekeland. The plastic became popular very quickly as this was the first ever material that was made to be durable, long lasting, lightweight and waterproof but little did we know that all of these pro’s would also turn into the problem, not to mention how plastic is also so cheap compared to other substitutes such as glass and pot. Since this material came with such great advantages it also carried many huge disadvantages. The problem is it takes many years for plastics to decompose, even one single plastic bottle takes a whopping 450 years to decompose and not to mention studies show that all around the World there is one million plastic bottles purchased per minute! So if you think that that is bad this next source will shock you even more, only 9% of plastics are actually recycled meaning the other 91% is still living on our Planet. The Guardian provided reports stating that since the 1950’s it has been estimated that 8.3 billions tons of plastic has been formed, what we know of plus keep in mind only 9% has been recycled. The Pollution is not only affecting our sea life and their habitats but also life on land, including ours. Many animals are losing their lives everyday after coming in contact with plastic due to: thinking small and large particles are food, becoming trapped or tangled in it and other events. Not only is it killing poor animals but it is intruding into their habitats creating them to become completely destroyed, sources show that roughly 100,000 marine animals a year are falling victims to plastic. The Pollution does not only stay in the sea but it also surfaces up onto our beaches. The truth is plastic pollution is EVERYWHERE, unfortunately us Humans do not always follow the rules when it comes to ‘getting rid’ of our rubbish. As sad it is to say, the majority of the pollution is down to us human beings, if people got rid of their waste by recycling it and not littering around we would never be in such a situation that we are dealing with now. If you would like a more visual idea of how many plastic bags are actually accumulating, shut your eyes and take in the thought that if every single bag were to be joined together they would circumnavigate the Globe 4,200 times.

Not my photographs, listed in bibliography.

Countless amounts of artists have been responsive towards the gut wrenching dilemma by featuring the problem into their work. Art is a valuable way of raising concern as it travels through: social media, magazines, leaflets, exhibition’s/ public locations and so on. The more you get your work around and shared the more people are going to see it and hopefully take notice that there is a very serious ongoing in our environment. There are many different current styles of work being made but it always seems better if your piece is obvious of what you’re trying to get at as then this way it can’t be avoided and straight away it has people thinking. Although we don’t like to see it, work that displays graphic content is also quite popular as it is showing how serious it is and exactly what is happening, pieces like this usually show the mass of pollution or animals struggling and dying due to this tragedy.

Not my photographs, listed in bibliography.

Mandy Barker is an incredible artist who works mainly in the photographic and editing area where she demonstrates the terrible effects that Pollution is having on our Environment. The artist gained International recognition which led up to her being awarded ‘THE Royal Photographic Society’s Environmental bursary’, this gave Mandy the advantage to progress on to work alongside Scientists during an research expedition in 2012. The expedition was based on investigating the accumulation of debris within the Pacific Ocean from the aftermath of a Tsunami that developed the year before, she refers to the trip as the North Pacific Voyage. Since then Barker endured many more well deserved awards for the eye opening work she was and still is creating. The artist was so inspired from her first trip that she was then motivated to set sail on multiple more life changing voyages to locations such as: Henderson Island, Lord Howe Island and Greenpeace. Unfortunately Barker was not visiting these whereabouts on good circumstances but actually for the complete opposite, for example Henderson Island. Mandy visited this island along with another 11 group members- herself, scientists, filmmakers, journalists, divers and a clean up crew all ready to undertake a two week research expedition in 2019. The area was situated over 5,000KM from the nearest part of land. They visited this percific Island as scientists who discovered it had also confirmed in 2017 that it had the most polluted beach on the planet, this encouraged the group to analyse and clean up a huge estimated total of 10 tonnes of pollution from the beach .Barker dug deeper and contributed her knowledge even further to the world within: books, articles and conferences. Every single piece of work that Mandy has constructed has been totally built on the foundation of research which you can really identify, this gives them a personal and factual touch. The series of Barkers that caught my eye is named ‘PENALTY’, Penalty made me feel literally blown away. The set is based on all the Footballs that have made their way into the sea and these footballs have come from all over the world to be included in Barkers work. These images really do make you stop and think. They actually took me back to all the times I have been to parks with Lakes and the Beach when I have seen footballs end up in the water and be left there due to no one wanting to go in to get them, then it got me thinking of how I have seen this happen on more than one occasion so imagine how many times this is happening everyday around the world.

Mandy Barker - SOUP collection, 2011.

Work Exhibited at The Sunderland Winter Gardens in 2019-2020.

My own Photographs.

Back in January I actually had the privilege to have seen an Exhibition named 'Observe, Explore, Archive' at The Sunderland Winter Gardens which Mandy Barker was featuring in. The exhibition held many works by contemporary photographers, the theme was set on the results of when Nature and Science are both combined. It was absolutely overwhelming to have seen Mandy’s work in person, especially after being inspired by her work for many years. Her work was all framed and set out beautifully. It was thrilling to have had the opportunity to have seen her work right in front of me rather than just over a computer/ phone screen, I loved being able to go right up to her photographs and have a close up view of all the little details.

Angela Hasletine is another amazing artist who is making big changes to our environment. Hasletine used to stroll along the Southern Coast of Oregon with her family and each time she would notice masses of pollution/plastics increasing all over, this is when she found her inspiration and motivation to make a change. In 2010 Angela assembled a non-profit organization where she gathered herself and many other volunteers to become a part of this huge project known as ‘Washed Ashore’, she once said ‘’Until we run out of plastic on the beach, we will keep doing our work.'. Washed Ashore turned into an exhibition that has and still is traveling all over the world, the exhibit consists of many beautiful but heartbreaking sculptures that have all been produced by this group of collectives. The sculptures are made up at a large scale and every one of them represents different sea animals which are most affected by the devastation, as Angela once quoted that she believes their work is ‘In some ways an escape, but at the same time a confrontation.'. Each sculpture has been made out of Marine debris that had been collected from the Southern Coast of Oregon, this gives the work that even more unique touch and not only just that but also helps massively in cleaning up the beach. Angela is set out on a mission where she wants to educate as many people as she can and keep on expanding her group project so that more and more people are getting involved. It is stated that the artist has gathered over 10,000 volunteers over the years and together they have collected over 20 tons of debris and turned the whole collection into over 70 sculptures which is incredible. Before the artist assembled the ‘Washed Ashore’ project she was still very in touch within the art area, she graduated with a Masters degree in Arts Education at Portland State University. After University Hasletine went on: lecturing, producing art, consulting and so on. It wasn’t until her Husband had sadly died she decided she wanted to work on something bigger, something that was going to make a change and this is when The Washed Ashore Project was born.

Washed Ashore Project, sculptures.

Not my photographs, bibliography.

Not only artists but activist’s are also getting involved at this worrying time, David Attenborough for an example. David, who is well known for being a world wide sensational broadcaster, also took it upon himself to highlight the serious concerns towards Plastic Pollution. For years I have been watching documentaries that are narrated by Attenborough, these documentaries involve ‘Blue Planet’. Blue Planet gives us viewers the opportunity to experience moments we may never get the chance to see in person. The series is one huge project of exploring the Ocean, capturing moments that have never been caught before which is exactly what we all need to be seeing! Back in 2018 when Blue Planet ii was released David dedicated one of the episodes to highlight major involvement of the pollution. This episode showed a heart aching moment where a Dolphin was enjoying playing with extracts from the polluition, little did the mamal know this was apart of one of the biggest killers in their habitat. He then teamed up with two motivational activists named Greta Thunberg and Jane Goodall to create a broadcast to be presented globally, this broadcast is known as ‘Plea for the Planet’. One of my favourite parts of the short clip is when Jane Goodall questions ‘How is it possible the most intellectual being that ever walked the planet is destroying it’s only home?’ This question will forever stay with me and keep me questioning myself.

Not my photograph, listed in bibliography.

Over the past couple of years large and small companies have anticipated multiple universal movement's. The first movement was introduced back on 5th October 2015 by the Government when the rules were set that stores had to start charging 5p for a plastic carrier bag, overtime the cost grew to 10p. This action was taken in hope people would stop buying plastic carrier's and start to use reusable ones instead, results from the official GOV website showed that this was gaining a positive outcome and less carrier bags were being sold. As time passed, more action was implied and many retailers took it into their own hands to push the development further and rather than selling any form of plastic bag instead they decided to sell/give only paper bags which are much more environmentally friendly including stores such as: Primark, Lush and Morrison’s. The second movement was HUGE, the ban of plastic straws. The plastic straw solution has been confirmed to fully become official this year in 2020, in the meantime huge restaurants such as Mcdonalds and Burger King have replaced plastic straws with paper ones which decompose much quicker. Plastic straws are a huge killer in our sea when they’re being lodged down the throats of sea animals and becoming impaled up the noses of animals like Turtles, also remembering straws are single use items. This particular piece of plastic is incredibly difficult to evict from the Earth as they are purposely made to be mega flexible. Many complaints were made due to paper straws becoming ‘soggy’ when wet which I agree is not the best but I would much rather drink from a soggy paper straw than be responsible for thousands of deaths. Although this procedure is showing great impact it has also came with a lot of backlash, handfuls of statements came flooding in as it was brought to the attention that plastic straws are essential to people who have disabilities as drink from this source is the only way they can stay hydrated and could become quite a uproar if they became fully impossible to purchase. These arguments have all been taken into consideration and a response is still yet to come.

Overall it is clear to see that there is a large capacity of artists, activists and companies worldwide that are tremendously concerned and distressed upon the topic of plastic pollution. Artists are encouraging other artists and everyone else around the world to act quick before it’s too late. It is brilliant to see the art community come together as one to help control an outrages destruction that we can’t handle on our own. Every artist has presented an inspirational response to the crisis, not only just within their art but also including all the further extreme lengths they had accommodated on to gather their research and so on. All of the artists who have been helping along the way have been amazing elements to the project and environmental crisis.

Bibliography:

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