Plastics: Out of the Ocean and into the Art Gallery
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What Goes Around, Comes Around wins Project Aware's support to Travel the US!
www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt
We thank all of you who helped get the votes necessary to win the Project Aware grant money to take the art show across the United States. We would like to give a big thank you to Project Aware who provided this opportunity not only for the money, but for us to recognize the awesome friends POP has on Facebook. The traveling art exhibit, "What Goes Around, Comes Around," is an art initiative to bring awareness regarding the problems with overuse of one-time use plastics, why it matters, and what can be done about it. Collecting plastics from nearly 10,000 nautical miles in three oceans, the art consists of plastic items morphed into the famous print, "The Great Wave of Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai circa 1830. It systematically illustrates how the oceans are very different than what Hokusai saw less than 200 years ago. The piece beautifully depicts the ocean and the menace of plastics, how all of us are part of the problem, and how we are the only solution. Like the AIDS Memorial Quilt that traveled across this country successfully bringing awareness to the AIDS pandemic, Monteleone is bringing awareness to the marine plastics pandemic through the heartland of the US from North Carolina to California leaving it on display at public venues for people to enjoy the beauty, question the scourge, and make the connection that we all contribute to this growing problem just as rivers connects to an ocean. "What Goes Around, Comes Around" puts the viewer instantly on the ocean as they stand in front of 25' of ocean waves on canvas. Five large window panes serve as educational panels revealing the science behind the art. Five bins of ocean trash allow viewers to find the plastic pieces in the art, and a 4'x6' sculpture portrays the wave of the future if we ignore the plastic plague. Starting with day exhibits at Cape Fear River Watch, Friends School of Wilmington, Center for Life Long Learning, Surfrider Rise Above Plastic Event, and the Wilmington Art Association, NC, the show has now traveled to 40 locations across the country. Pieces of the show have been published in the French magazine Stradda, on Ruidoblanco, Spanish popular band, CD cover, 3 book covers, and an accomplished composer's program for "Ocean Calling." The art installation has now traveled over 6,700 miles and will continue to exhibit around the United States. A complete list of venues visited is below. To learn more about hosting the exhibit contact: [email protected] |
portion of the What Goes Around, Comes Around piece was featured on Lucy Siegle's new book 'Turning the Tide On Plastic'. Get your copy today!
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Locations
Help keep the show moving. Request to have the show in your city! Those interested please contact Bonnie Monteleone at [email protected].
INTERVIEW WITH THE ARTIST
An online interview with Zenzi Lowik at student at the University of Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands with artist Bonnie Monteleone.
- Z: On the internet I didn’t find any other artwork of yours. Are you currently active an artist?
- B: Not right now but hope to get back to it after I finish publishing my data.
- Z: Have you created other artworks?
B: Not since 2011. I had an entire gallery of work but unfortunately lost it when I moved from NY to Wilmington, NC in 2004. I went to grad school and began my research on marine plastics in 2018. The art made from the plastics I collected from the ocean manifested after someone at my thesis defense asked me what I was going to do with all of the trash I collected from my research. That was the genesis of the traveling art exhibit. - Z: In a video on Youtube you are saying to feel selected to show the world the affliction in the marine areas of our planet. You decided to share your experiences with the rest of the world by creating an artwork that reflects the problems you have seen in the marine areas. Why did you choose art to address and show these problems to the world?
B: I decided to use art after traveling the world and seeing plastics floating in some of the most remote places on the planet and islands inside gyres being pummeled with ocean plastic that is most likely not theirs, and recognizing most people will never get the opportunity to see what I have seen and without seeing it, it is "not there." As the saying goes, a picture says a 1000 words. Owning a 4'x5' mural of the Great Wave and putting together in my head that Hokusai would not have seen plastics when he was doing his art, I decided this would be a great way to communicate the issue. (after I made sure it was of the public domain) I used the word "chosen" because I really had no business being out there. I do not have a science background, I do not know how to sail, yet by some act of fate, I ended up with these wonderful and sadly horrific experiences. I felt obligated to go beyond writing my thesis and defending it, to share what I learned to expedite awareness to this issue. - Z: Your work 'What goes around comes around' consists of five paintings and a 3D sculpture. Why did you choose this combination?
B: The art does not allow people to touch it, the sculpture was designed so people could climb on it and into it. It adds another dimension to the story and fill the space beyond the images. The sculpture is called "Wave of the Future" - the art illustrates what's out there now. - Z: Did you have more connections with the work that Hokusai made?
B: Not from the artist point of view. But there was an underlying theme. My dear friend Paul Lorenzo not only financially backed a lot of my work but he encouraged me every step of the way. Once I decided to do this research, he sent me an etched "dog tag"(if you will) pendent necklace of the Great Wave. I told him I would not take it off until I defended my thesis and wore it everyday the 3 years I was doing the work. It became the icon of my work. - Z: Your work creates an environment in which visitors can get the actual feeling of being inside the plastic soup. What kind of reactions have you received from visitors?
B: When people walk into the space, at first they see the bright colors and the beauty and grandeur of the images and seem pleased but then when they walk closer many will moan. It is like an audible "aha" moment. The exhibit has traveled around the US to over 30 different locations and continues to have invitations including S. Korea and Dubai. It has been featured in numerous magazines like Stradda and Origins, on the cover of two CD albums, and on the cover of three non-fiction books. - Z: What has ‘What goes around comes around’ contributed to the plastic waste problem/discussion?
B: I think the biggest message is "what we do to the planet we do to ourselves" hence the title. We are now hearing reports of plastic in sea salt, fish, in our blood, and feces. The title, sadly, is true to form. - Z: Did you achieve what you wanted to achieve by creating and exhibiting this artwork?
B: I am to the moon happy how the work turned out. I would like to do more, but since I did this in 2011, so many others have taken it to the next level I feel I need another shift. I really need to have time to publish my data and will do something that represents the science through art on a whole new level.
Best of luck Zenzi and let me know if you have any other questions. If there is a way to get it to your area, please let me know.
Bonnie Monteleone, Co-founder
Plastic Ocean Project, Inc.
