Elizabeth Thom

For the first week of the Plastic Project, I focused on the impact of plastic pollution on sea life and the micro plastic which is found in our oceans.

I looked at the work of several artists who’s work informed the development of my ideas and progression of my project own work. I liked the way that Judith and Richard Lang and John Morris all created artworks from washed up plastic to highlight the impact of plastic pollution in out oceans. I was also influenced and inspired the haunting sculptures of Alvaro Soler Arpa’s work which force the viewer to confront the grim reality of the effects on wildlife of plastic waste in the sea. His work elicits an emotional response from the viewer which inspired me approach my own work with this same sense of purpose. My research also led me to explore the use of molecular structure of plastic as reference in creative installations, which I found visually interesting.

During my interrogation of the subject, I explored mark making and drawing with plastic as a material and I made a molecular polyethylene 3 Dimensional structure. I also made sea creatures from various bits of plastic in combination with these molecular structures to illustrate their ingestion of microplastics which they cannot expel. This combined elements of a real fish with my own creations to suggest a simultaneous inside/outside view of the creature.

I used this formula to create a number of sea creatures and placed them into a context of a chalkboard restaurant menu to illustrate that we are ourselves unknowingly ingesting this same plastic as part of the food chain. I believe my outcome successfully conveys this shocking message and impacts the viewer by eliciting an emotional response.