Eighty-Eight Percent

Artist’s Name Erika Dino (AKIRE)
Size 30"x40"

Medium found plastic & objects on canvas and video projection

Year 2021

The beach was a 15-minute drive from the artist’s home. Birthdays, Easter, and many other occasions were celebrated by the beach. The beach was pristine, the sand hot from the sun and the water was cool, it was nice. After leaving the province for college, the beach was a distant memory. But every time the family was together in the province, you bet a beach party was on the itinerary. But the beach was different, it is now cluttered with plastic waste. Garbage in different forms, including plastic, was littered on the shore and floating on the ocean. The memory of a clean beach was a distant memory.

Plastics have dramatically changed our way of life. It is hard to think of a future without it. According to Laura Parker (2019), a writer for National Geographic, plastics and microplastics have been eaten by marine life, which mimics the feeling of being full causing starvation. Throw away culture became the new normal. Use it once and throw it away. The massive plastic production and constant dependence accumulated and ended up piled in the sea, landfills, and the street.

"Eighty-Eight Percent" portrays trash on the ocean’s surface and what’s left of it. Andres Cozar et al, a researcher from the University of Cadiz in Spain, stated in their study that 88% of the ocean’s surface is littered with plastic, some dating back to the 1950s. The space left is the only part of the ocean’s surface free from microplastic and other types of waste. Since the artist lives in the city, and we are also in a pandemic, trash found at home was used in the artwork. A free glitch maker called photomosh.com was used to make the effect of a still photo of the ocean move and is projected onto the canvas. This new media art combines plastic assemblage and video projection.

Reference:

Laura Parker, “The world's plastic pollution crisis explained”, National Geographic, June 7, 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution.

Andres Cozar et al., “Plastic Debris in the Open Ocean”, PNAS, 111, no. 28 (June 15, 2014): 10239-10244, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1314705111.