THIRZA SCHAAP – PLASTIC OCEAN
Amsterdam: From June 5 until June 13.
The images show a clash between worlds, offering
minimal and aesthetically pleasing compositions
which, on closer inspection, in-still a sense of ecological
grief.
Plastic Ocean questions consumption, idolatry and
what it is we value in our lives today.
The effect is a quirky, playful and popart paradox.
At a first glance, the debris do not disgust us. On the
contrary. Their dainty look almost seems to gloss over
the ugliness of all the plastic pollution on our beaches.
But only for an instant. Our initial attraction, soon
fades.
Plastic Ocean provides a kind of Vanitas for the 21st
century. Traditional icons of mortality, ephemerality
and wealth have been traded out for bottles, baskets
and bowls: single-use items which are used and discarded,
now only existing as empty vessels of destruction.
Our beaches are covered in plastic confetti and there
really is nothing to celebrate.
More about the artist
