Lily Norstrand

I began my Plastics Project by researching into the effects of fast-fashion factories that let all the excess dye run into local rivers. The photographer Helen Brandt was an inspiration, as she goes out to polluted rivers and oceans, taking photographs of oil left on top of water. Even though it is so harmful to wildlife, the photographs look beautiful, the marbling and the array of colours. I took inspiration from Melissa Selmin, who mainly focuses on marbling techniques by using monochromatic colours to create beautiful and one-of-a-kind pieces of art.

The first process I worked on was marbling, using a range of colours. The main ingredient in this media was oil, which I thought was fitting, as oil is an ingredient from plastic. I experimented using different colours, manipulating the oil to create patterns within the ink and water.

However, moving onto more research, I was interested in looking at the pattern of fishing nets and why they are so harmful to the environment. After researching fishing nets, I discovered that a large number of charities have nicknamed them “ghost nets”. The reason is marine life can’t see them under water and get stuck in them.  I experimented with knitting plastic bin bags in a range of different colours and scales. I proceeded to photograph the knitted pieces experimenting with light and shadow.  For this final image I marbled onto plastic sheets, photographed them and printed onto acetate, layering them on the lightbox to create pockets of shadows between the knitted plastic. I think that the shadow from the plastic highlights the destructiveness of plastic and how sinister it can be.