Wasteland

Overview

If action isn't taken to reduce rubbish in our oceans, it's estimated there will be more plastic than fish in the world's oceans by 2050. To raise awareness about the severity of this issue, at least 120 kilograms of this plastic waste has been hauled from the sea and put to better use to create this thought-provoking public artwork.

Titled Wasteland and produced by local creative studio Mundane Matters as part of Art & About Sydney, the piece features 2255 orange orbs made from recycled ocean debris. Inspired by a fortuitous Costa Rican forest that saw 12,000 tons of orange peels dumped into an empty pasture only to flourish into a forest 16 years later, this piece uses waste collected from around the Great Barrier Reef — where a group called Eco Barge has been busy recovering more than 180,000 kilogram of plastic junk over the past nine years.

The haul used to create Wasteland included everything from plastic bottle necks and lids, to a broken chair and even someone's abandoned kettle. After being ground down, melted together with some plastic and moulded into the spheres. It now hangs suspended from the ceiling of Customs House as a compelling reminder of how our daily lives impact the environment on a global scale.

"Each orange object is a movable dot, allowing the whole system to be reconfigured and reformatted with endless possibilities," explains Danling Xiao, the creative brains behind Mundane Matters.

Wasteland is open on weekdays from 8am–midnight, Saturdays from 10am–midnight and Sundays from 11am–5pm.

Images: Katherine Griffiths