Plastic Reflectic (2016)

Plastic Reflectic is an interactive installation that reflects on the problem of the “plastic soup” in our oceans. Enormous amounts of plastic waste end up in the ocean, where it slowly degrades into tiny particles. These microplastics find their way into all parts of the food chain and eventually, for example through the eating of fish, also into our own bodies.

The installation consists of what appears to be a large empty white pool filled with black water. When you step in front of it, hundreds of pieces of actual ocean plastic come floating to the surface, forming your silhouette. As you move your body or wave your arms, pieces of plastic submerge again while others float to the surface showing your own real-time reflection moving along with you, made of plastic waste fished from the oceans. Plastic Reflectic warns us by showing us our own bodies made out of plastic ocean trash, but also shows that everyone has a personal influence on this growing problem.

We made the installation together with artist Thijs Biersteker and Better Future Factory for the Plastic Soup Foundation and Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant.

Opening Creative Press Chalenge, Amsterdam, NL, 2017