On the 12th, the Financial Times Online published an article titled "Plastic Fish: A Battle To Contaminate Marine Plastic With Art." The main points are as follows:
When Austrian chemist Wolfgang Tetrenack moved to the northwestern part of Spain, he was frightened by the large amount of plastic waste and marine litter on the beach near his own.These plastic bottles, bags, nets, buoys, ropes, Old boots and even toys scattered on miles of coastline made him aware of the harsh environmental consequences of using plastic.
To deal with this issue, he formed a group with Margarita Simávevila, a chemist, to create creative and innovative works through a combination of art and science that would be publicized And inspire the public, especially young people, to take action to tackle pollution, overfishing and marine development.
Their exhibition, "Hai Plastic", is full of gorgeous colors, all of which are themed on the sea, using all kinds of human waste washed up on the Atlantic Galician beach. Bottles, bags, fishing nets, ropes, shoes and toys have all been given a new mission, presented in the form of collages and hanging ornaments, etc. The colorful exhibit has only one theme: the marine environment and marine life are suffering from waste Plastic intake, wounds and increased toxicity and other cruel torture, and this can be avoided.
This exhibition is part of a new wave of 'eco-art' experiments designed to arouse people's attention to such issues as the environment, sustainability and recycling.
Their exhibition was opened during the 'Our Ocean' International Conference organized by the European Commission in Malta in October this year and at the opening ceremony we took the opportunity to interview several artists.
Where do these plastics come from?
A large proportion of the plastic comes from fisheries activities: fishing nets, fish cages, ropes and all other things fishermen will use, and even shoes, and a large part comes from aquaculture, an important industry in Galicia that breeds mainly The objects are mussels and oysters, and the third major source is household waste and municipal waste, whatever you can buy on the market at the beach.
It is one thing to investigate plastic pollution. It is another thing to make plastic products from plastic. How do you think of this way?
Science and the arts are very similar and the steps are the same: surveying, figuring out, experimenting. In a nutshell, they have a lot in common, and we're trying to fight the problem of plastic pollution with these works of art, so we put cards next to them, explaining Works revealed the problem of plastic pollution and put forward countermeasures.
Did the survey find you surprised?
Through the investigation, I learned that fish will eat plastic and die from ubiquitous fishing nets, and the toxicity of plastic materials has changed the gender of the fish and led to other strange phenomena. This is really alarming since we started The scientific information available at this work is minimal.
What do you expect art to achieve differently than science?
We consider art to be a medium for delivering information to people, especially young people, and we do not use stimulating pictures as usual, but in a more poetic way, but the underlying theme is very Serious.
You say a lot of rubbish comes from fishing and aquaculture production activities. What can people do about it?
Fishermen and aquaculture operators should pay more attention to the materials they use, not only to change the materials, but also to pay more attention to methods of use, and some materials are accidentally lost rather than deliberately thrown into the sea.
Can you talk about this?
Some materials may have been lost when the aquaculture farm was hit by a storm, so it should not be intentional. People should be careful not to litter the beach, and every summer I see a lot of people leaving junk on the beach. Hygienic habits are not good, but each one left a little rubbish, it will also be more and more.A number of rubbish was blown into the sea.Galicia is a windy place, so even if you throw it into the trash Will be blown away, and finally fell into the sea.
Some countries have banned the use of plastic bags, do you think this is an effective way?
Yes, this is the beginning, and Spain has been banning the use of plastic bags for a few cents per plastic bag, and I can see that people are gradually reducing the use of plastic bags, but the total amount used Is still large plastic bottles are the same.Because the tap water is sometimes not hygienic, but also with the smell of chlorine, so many people buy bottled water, this is a very large number.To reflect this problem, we made a fish with a plastic bottle Strap.
The message is clear: it is time for action and we really face a huge problem.