Image: Transform from Hong Kong Soup
1826 Ingredients – Recovered toys, action heroes and transformers.
© Mandy Barker, courtesy Impressions Gallery
Our Plastic Ocean, by international award-winning photographer Mandy Barker, addresses the current global crisis of marine plastic pollution. Barker collects debris from shorelines across the world and transforms them into powerful and captivating images. The exhibition is the first major touring retrospective of her work. At first glance, Barker’s images are reminiscent of sea creatures and corals suspended in a dark void beneath the sea, but closer inspection reveals a more disturbing reality. From footballs to fishing nets, cotton-buds to coffee-cup lids, Barker highlights the incongruous plastic items now ubiquitous in our seas. From accompanying scientists on an expedition from Hawaii to Japan, tracing the debris of the 2011 Tsunami, to a voyage on board Greenpeace’s Beluga II to the Inner Hebrides, Mandy Barker has followed a trail of plastic pollution across the globe. The images resulting from these expeditions have become some of the most recognisable visual commentary on marine plastic pollution.
An Impressions Gallery touring exhibition curated by Angela Sheard.
3 September – 15 October
Main Art Gallery
#OurPlasticOcean
