“Deriving its name from P. K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, absolute kippleization refers to the stuff that accumulates and takes over our lives. It directly investigates the large quantities of plastic entering our oceans and waterways. A confronting testimony to our consumerist and disposable lifestyles.
“This artwork explores this notion of kipple, investigating the manner in which plastics impact marine environments. I like to think of plastics as a material artefact, disintegrating and transforming both physically and functionally. Over time, plastics break down in the marine environment. The chemical sequence that makes up plastic will lose chains, rendering the plastic toxic. The shapes of the plastic objects become weatherworn and broken. The plastic’s purpose also changes when it is discarded. No longer a vessel or a lid, the plastic becomes adrift, a floating interference in the water until it becomes a receptacle for bacteria, a toxic anomaly or a fake food source.
“Approximately every fortnight for twelve months I collected, documented, cleaned and categorised hard plastic, including straws, bottles, lids, toys, cigarette lighters and cotton buds, forming over 19 cluster samples. Including prints of the cluster samples taken at Congwong Beach, in excess of 200 specimen jars containing sorted plastic found at the Beach and graphs that abstractly document and analyse volume, absolute kippleization reminds us of vast and overwhelming challenges that we face in the age of the Anthropocene.
“The plastic is classified by both type and colour, attracting us with its vibrancy, the vivid palette lures and seduces. In the specimen jars, the plastic reminds us of lollies and treats. But once you look closely and you are aware that this is plastic collected from a single place, the glitter and glamour of the colour fades. It is here that you notice evidence of micro-organisms crafting floating homes to spread across the globe. It is here that you notice missing fragments that have been broken off as the plastic deteriorates.
“absolute kippleization fuses both science and art, in order to give a voice to the our marine life. It combines scientific investigation, method and data, with visual analysis and interpretation. The work allows me to think like a scientist through collecting evidence, repeating processes, classifying specimens and inputting data. absolute kippleization requires scientific processes and data results for it to literally take shape and form” – Rachel Honnery.
I guess the message, here, is that we need to make permanent pickles over just a few smudges in our daily lives!
Plastic pickles may last long, but cannot be consumed.
Edible food pickles may not last long, but the can be consumed.
In both cases, the glass pickle containers could be reused.
Some people might be interested in these talks with some great ideas about using waste plastic in art and a new scheme to introduce portable recycling capacity to countries who need help. http://www.news.coffsharbour.nsw.gov.au/2018/01/04/become-picasso-plastic/
I agree and I loved this article because is talking about a serious problem that everyone should pay attention to. Yes, Indeed plastic pollution is a worldwide problem, and countries should do something about it. Although, I know that banning plastic bags is a good idea to decrease plastic but I believe it will not be able to fix the problem completely. The reason is because banning plastic bags is decreasing only from one kind of plastic. People throw different kinds of plastic in the ocean every day such as water bottles, broken chairs or tables, phones and others. As your quote from the Center for Biological Diversity mentioned “Thousands of seabirds and sea turtles, seals and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it.” Yes, the plastic is affecting marine life but is affecting human health as well. The plastic that people throw everyday in the ocean becomes fish food. Humans eat plastic too when eating their seafood. Fish become sick when eating plastic and they end up having tumors and different kind of diseases that could affect humans health, according to the article “How Plastic In The Ocean Is Contaminating Your Seafood”(Kaplan). This problem is growing and I encourage authors and other websites like this to keep writing about this problem so they can get more people to think about it.