Plastic Pollution

Expanding my research away from portrait work and more towards environments and plastic within everyday life, I found another Artist on lens culture who also did a project surrounding plastic and the ocean clean up project.

Katherine Oktober Matthews

Katherine’s project was a personal project in support of the Ocean Clean up a fundraiser in 2014. The project is called Fruits de Mer and Katherine worked alongside chef Aaron Tighe to create 6 images of well-known fish dishes but instead replaced with plastic found in the ocean.

© 2000-2018 Katherine Oktober Matthews

By replacing the dishes with plastic pollution from the ocean, the project sends a powerful message about the dangers of plastic pollution in our oceans and the effect it has on the creators living in the ocean. ‘Our goal is to strike home the imminent and ubiquitous danger of plastic pollutants, in an aesthetic, absurd, and beautifully disgusting way’  (Matthews 2014).

Katherine discussed the effect that plastic pollution has on the environment and how it harms the animals which are living there.

‘Far from being only a nuisance, the plastic causes significant damage to those who live in the ocean or rely on it for sustenance: birds and fish mistake the brightly colored plastic for food and consume it, causing widespread illness and death’ (Matthews 2014).

I really like the concept behind this project and the way they have executed the images into something really unique and different. I think the images send a powerful message about plastic pollution and the effects it can have on our environment by bringing the issue into the human world. You wouldn’t serve a plate of plastic to a guest at a restaurant, however, a large majority of what ocean creatures are eating is plastic which they are exposed to in the ocean. I also like the incorporation of the plastic which has actually been recovered from the ocean, contributing to the clean up while also using props which if they were still in the ocean, could be contributing to the issue. I  think the project is unique and different from any other plastic pollution project I have seen before and I have gained a lot more insight into how I want my project to be delivered and gained inspiration as to how I could do this.

Bibliography:

Matthews, K. 2014, Fruits de Mer, Oktobernight, [blog] 2014, available at: <http://oktobernight.com/portfolio/fruits-de-mer/> [accessed on: 20th Nov 19]