Mandy Baker has been scientifically collecting and photographing evidence of plastic (here I don't want to say 'pollution', it is to meek and familiar a word, and plastic presence has gone beyond pollution it is now in our very cells and brains) 'contamination' of our waters. I originally came across Mandy's work when I was working as a Museum technician in Fife and hanging the touring exhibition of Mandy's 'Our Plastic Oceans' At Dunfermline Museum and Gallery, I was impressed by Mandy's thorough and scientific approach to her work.
Inspired by Anna Atkins 'Cyanotypes of British Algae' published in 1843 artist Mandy Baker had an idea. The eroded plastic based textiles she was finding washed up resembled seaweeds and so she set about to mirror Anna Atkins beautiful works recording seaweeds and mirror it in a Frankenstein way with the modern findings of de-structured plastic textiles to highlight the new chocking horrors of fast-fashion.
Above: Annna Aitkin's cyanotypes of British Algae.
Below: Mandy Bakers gathered textiles.
Above and below: Images from Mandy Barker's 'Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Imperfections’.
Mandy's book is published by Ghost Books and you can buy it here
No comments:
Post a Comment