PLASTIC REFRACTIONS

Plastic Refractions is an internationally recognized project that continues to grow every year. This project focuses on the overconsumption of single-use plastic water bottles and how one simple decision to use one or not has all the impact on our Earth and our Ocean.

the process

The basic process of creating my plastic work lies in experimentation. The goal of the work is to use the entire bottle so that no plastic goes to waste. Since the making of this video, several new sculptures have been created but the basic process shown remains the same.

the work

Plastic Refractions is a body of work reflecting on the relationship between plastic and the ocean. Single use plastic continues to be a growing problem; even with all the awareness brought forward, 20,000 plastic waterbottles are used every second worldwide.

That’s just one disposable object. In fact, about 8 million pieces of plastic pollute the ocean every day.

Habits are repetitive actions. I see using single use plastic as a habit that can be broken through practice. With this in mind, I was compelled to see what I could create by using a single habitual object: the plastic waterbottle.

Working with the material’s organic-like shapes, I wanted to mimic the ocean’s movement, energy, and splendor with the very material that is harming it.

click photos for more information on each individual piece of the project

For the ”foundation” of Plastic Refractions I spent 200 hours walking Savannah, GA and picking up any plastic bottle I could find. During these walks I realized two things: I love jazz and we as consumers have come so far from understanding the materiality of plastic. We are blinded by convenience, as so many of us have been raised to buy new rather than mend or clean.

Only 20% of the ocean’s surface is plastic-free; the rest is littered with waste. This waste infects every aspect of the ocean. The colors of plastic confuse sea birds, causing a million to die every year. Plastic is so prevalent in the ocean, microplastics are found embedded into fish muscle tissue.

When thinking of the ocean, my mind always goes to the relationship that it holds with light. Underwater, light gets refracted sending glistening ribbons dancing across the vast ocean.

There is peace in that vastness.

There are also over 5 trillion pieces of plastic in that vastness, with an average of 8 million tons entering the ocean every year. This plastic disrupts not only light refractions, but the entire well-being of the entire ocean. What will the ocean look like 20 years from now?