in it's quiet beauty, mandy barker's photo collection,
SOUP,
is endlessly interesting & utterly intriguing.
while at first glance, you could swear you are looking at a picture of outer space-
or an assembly of colorful doll toys, or perhaps even the remains of a festive
new year's celebration, what you are actually looking at is trash.
lots and lots of trash.
"SOUP is a description given to plastic debris suspended in the sea,
and with particular reference to the mass accumulation that exists
in an area of The North Pacific Ocean 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. The sequence reveals a
narrative concerning oceanic plastics from initial attraction and
attempted ingestion, to the ultimate death of sea creatures and
representing the disturbing statistics of dispersed plastics having
no boundaries.
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.
The captions record the plastic ingredients in each image providing
the viewer with the realisation and facts of what exists in the sea."
i am both fascinated and horrified at the same time-
which i am sure is the point of this artwork-
to provoke, ponder & perhaps to post.