Pascal Pugh

In a world set on the aim of perfection, we hold a biased mind set on forgetting the negative impact that we create for our ecosystems using plastics. My aim was to create a piece that would have no emotional connection to a human until you contextualize the piece and understand why each piece is made the way it is. This would be a direct relationship to the world we live in today as we do not fully understand something / the problems we are causing until we take the time to educate ourselves in the matters that the generations of today are so adamant to shed a blind eye to. After all we are only borrowing this planet from the generation of tomorrow.

Through researching the subject in documentaries such as Drowning in Plastic and Seaspiracy, eye opening statistics naturally shot out at me and stuck in my head e.g. sea birds have been found to have up to 200 pieces of plastic in their stomach and beached whales have been sound to have on average 30 plastic bags in their stomachs. Animals ingest plastic as they sometimes cannot differentiate it from their food, this builds up within their stomach as it cannot be digested. Therefore, there is not enough room in their stomachs to eat a sufficient amount of food which can lead to malnourishment and eventually lead to the fatality of the animal.

I was inspired by the work of Eric Klarenbeek and the work of Blast Studios and their explorations into natural forms by using recycled plastic as their main media. Using plastic bindings and joining methods, I created an organic structure with a limit on 200 pieces of plastic to replicate the scale of what a bird carries in their stomach. Each piece was to scale plastic pieces that had been previously found in deceased birds. The flexibility of the plastic I used allowed me to create natural shaped curvature when put under tension and bound in place. Creating a natural piece with a sharp hidden edge.