On Tuesday, 1 March at 11h00, *Simon MAX Bannister, creator of the Plastikos exhibit in the Two Oceans Aquarium, will give a presentation on his recent expedition from Cape Town to Piriapolis (Uruguay) across the South Atlantic Ocean with the **5 Gyres Institute in search of plastic. He will be joined by Green Times reporter, Willemien Calitz, who was also aboard as a crew member.
DATE: Tuesday 1 March 2011
TIME: 11h00
VENUE: Two Oceans Aquarium
The event is open to the media and members of the public. Limited seating. No booking required.
Bannister was invited to join the expedition by 5 Gyres co-founders Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins who were in Cape Town in December 2010, having themselves just completed the world’s first plastic-research voyage through the southern hemisphere.
They were so impressed with Bannister’s work and his interpretation of the plastic-pollution issue that they offered him a berth on the return trip across the South Atlantic.
Bannister joined eight other crew members, including 5 Gyres Communications Director Stiv Wilson, aboard the research vessel Sea Dragon, which departed from Walvis Bay on 5 January 2011 and docked in Piriapolis on 5 February 2011. The crew had the opportunity to visit St Helena Island en route.
The crew’s task on the expedition was to collect samples with a trawling device, known as the manta trawl, and to analyse the samples for plastic.
“Of the 42 identical trawl procedures we deployed across the entire [South Atlantic] gyre, every sample contained a degree of plastic,” said Bannister. These finding matched those of Eriksen and Cummins who collected 67 samples on their voyage and every single one contained plastic elements.
“Relative to the vast area of ocean, the thin slice of water we sampled represents just a tiny fraction of what may actually be out there,” commented Bannister. “These findings serve as an innovative benchmark to future studies and predictions of how the plastic legacy will persist even in the most remote parts of the world. These shocking results indicate that when extrapolated, tons of fragmenting particles drift in all of the world’s oceans making it a synthetic soup.”
Bannister has been exploring the shorelines of South Africa for years and has always been concerned about discarded litter and its effect on the environment. It was this concern which inspired him to create Plastikos, a unique exhibition that aims to raise awareness about waste – particularly plastic and micro plastic – and its impact on the oceans, all through art.
The works are made from reclaimed polyethylene plastic, which Bannister collected by hand from the shorelines, roadsides and landfills of South Africa.
Bannister said, “Over the last couple of years I have begun to look at the global [plastic] problem somewhat differently. Curiously I have discovered a strange beauty in plastic as a misunderstood material and the stories these discarded fragments of contemporary life have to tell and I brought it to life in my Plastikos exhibition.”
Incorporated into the Oceans of Contrast: Atlantic Ocean Gallery of the Aquarium, Plastikos includes giant sculptures, a spectacular backlit plastic rendition of the Earth as well as the entangled mesh of rope and debris entitled “Tangled”.
Other elements of Plastikos include a microcosm of a littered beach to illustrate how our beaches are turning to plastic as a result of the careless disposal and poor management of plastic waste. The items on display were all collected from Muizenberg beach. Plastikos will be on display in the Aquarium until the end of April 2011.
Bannister’s voyage was partially funded by the Two Oceans Aquarium, Peninsula Plastics, PETCO and the Plastics Institute of Southern Africa. CAPESTORM provided him with all-weather gear.
*Simon MAX Bannister: “I am an artist travelling South Africa – creating along my journey, I donate my time and energy to creating “Earth artworks” that speak for nature, promote balance, healing and wisdom. Pushing the limits of your imagination to the “MAX” “.
According to Dave Varty, MAX is “an emerging contemporary artist with, in my view, a rare talent for provocative deep and meaningful communication through the medium of art created from litter cleaned up off the land”.
See http://www.maxplanet.info.
**The 5 Gyres Institute is a non-profit organisation committed to meaningful change through research and education. 5 Gyres disseminates its findings through national lecture tours and raises awareness of ocean plastic pollution through voyages including that aboard JUNKraft, the boat built in 2008 of 15,000 plastic bottles. It collaborates with Algalita Marine Research Foundation and Pangaea Explorations, which provide it with a marine laboratory and research vessel, respectively. After studying the five subtropical gyres, 5 Gyres will monitor these vortexes through Traveling Trawl Program voyages which loan research equipment to volunteer “citizen scientists.”
See www.5gyres.com.
Related posts
- The hunt for plastic: Part 1
- The hunt for plastic: Part 2
- A crisis of plastic pollution: Findings released from plastic-research voyage
- Bon voyage, Sea Dragon
- From Plastikos: Return to the light
- Learning about plastic at the Two Oceans Aquarium
- Rising from the deep: Plastic!
- 5 Gyres Q&A: Thinking about solutions
- The Sea Dragon’s arrival is imminent!
- Meet 5 Gyres Institute founders Anna Cummins and Marcus Eriksen
