SOUP
Soup is a description given to plastic debris suspended in the sea, in particular the mass accumulation that exists in an area of the North Pacific known as the Garbage Patch. The series of images aim to engage with, and stimulate an emotional response in the viewer by combining a contradiction between initial aesthetic attraction and social awareness.
All the plastics photographed have been salvaged from beaches around the world and represent a global collection of debris that has existed for varying amounts of time in the world’s oceans.
Captions reference the plastic objects with a list of “ingredients”, providing the viewer with the realization and facts of what exists in the sea.
BEYOND DRIFTING: IMPERFECTLY KNOWN ANIMALS
Plankton form a diverse group of microscopic marine organisms living in the water column, not able to swim against the current; they exist in a drifting, floating, state. In this series of unique “specimens”, the animal species relates to the pioneering discoveries of plankton made by the marine biologist John Vaughan Thompson in Cobh, Cork Harbor during the 1800s. Presented as microscopic samples, objects of marine plastic debris recovered from the same location mimic Thompson’s early scientific discoveries of plankton.
Current scientific research has found that plankton ingest microscopic plastic particles, mistaking them for food and at the base of the food chain they are themselves a crucial source of food for many larger creatures. The potential impact on marine life and ultimately human beings is currently of vital concern. In terms of plankton, and of action, we are “beyond drifting” and must bring into focus the “imperfectly known animals”.
https://mandy-barker.com/