Shelley Seymour

The BBC documentary ‘Drowning in Plastic’ clearly illustrated the severity of the plastic problem, and it’s devastating effect on marine life. This spurred the idea of the all-consuming nature of plastic. I researched further into Iris Van Herpen who used ‘Parley for the Oceans’ ocean plastic fabric in a recent runway show; the material is upcycled and sourced from the 8 million tonnes of plastic that is found in oceans every year, which illustrated the different ways plastic could be turned into something new and even beautiful. Martin Margiela uses upcycling, the re-examination of daily life and the transformation of everyday objects as the main premises within his artisanal line. This inspired me to use the symbolic and everyday nature of plastic gloves, due to the current pandemic. I explored scale by creating large, unwearable gloves from a found plastic sheet, and sewed them together. During the photography stage, I experimented with wearing the garment and placed the plastic in different environments, seeing the new shapes the 3D form could take on and how it looked within nature. For my final photograph I wrapped the garment within a tree and took the photo from a looking up perspective, so the sky was essentially the backdrop. This demonstrates both the way the plastic pollution is suffocating and consuming nature but also us as people; if nature is suffering inevitably people will feel the effects of it. Therefore, my final image represents a glimpse into whole world problem we need to continue to address.