Plastic waste is a threat to the marine environment. A work of art that recently went on display at the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment in Wilhelmshaven addresses the problem in a very unique way.
It is a beautiful, lush underwater world that Karin Bison-Unger has depicted in her painting: Against a deep blue background, large corals, delicate sea lilies and delicate algae form a colourful community of life that seems to float in the water. Fine air bubbles rise above them. Only a second glance reveals that the picture is by no means a paradise: The air bubbles are actually small plastic pellets, the supposed algae consist of the thin threads of a ghost net - i.e. a fishing net lost in the sea - and the sandy bottom between the corals is actually a mixture of faded plastic fragments and old bottle caps.
"My work is dedicated to the fragile underwater world in our oceans, which is worth protecting," says Bison-Unger, an artist from Worpswede. She created the painting on behalf of Dr Shungudzemwoyo Garaba from the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) as part of a research project funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the so-called basic activities. ESA scientist Dr Paolo Corradi is leading the project, which is part of the "Discovery" innovation area and deals with methods for locating plastic waste.
"Artistic representation offers completely different ways of communicating to the public what we are researching," says Garaba. "A work of art helps people to see a problem with new eyes." The researcher is a remote sensing expert and develops methods to detect plastic waste in the sea using specific light signals, for example with the help of satellite data. He is also a scientific advisor to the Dutch foundation The Ocean Cleanup, which has set itself the goal of ridding the world's oceans of plastic.
Science in dialogue with art
Garaba has often realised that he finds it difficult to reach the public with the results of his research. When he discovered sculptures of marine life made from plastic waste while visiting an aquarium in the USA, he had the idea of bringing his own scientific work into a dialogue with art. He turned to Karin Bison-Unger, whom he has known since his studies at Jacobs University Bremen.
"Tropical coral reefs are fascinating ecosystems, but they are also fragile," says Bison-Unger, a painter and illustrator who uses watercolour and acrylic painting in combination with collage techniques, among other things. To symbolise the effects of plastic pollution in the oceans in her work, the artist used original fragments recovered from the oceans during research projects, including pieces of plastic collected on Pago Beach in Guam and pellets that The Ocean Cleanup had recycled from collected waste. "The painting consists of many layers of acrylic paint," explains the artist. She only applied the plastic fragments with the last layer of paint in order to achieve a spatial effect. "They are spread across the entire picture," she explains. She sewed the threads of the ghost nets to the canvas with a needle and thread.
The artist hopes that her work will arouse the curiosity of viewers and make "an artistic statement about the preservation of our planet's wonderful yet fragile ecosystems". The title "150 million tonnes - fragile underwater world" alludes to the total amount of plastic waste that is estimated to have already accumulated in the oceans.
The work has now found its place in the new building of the Centre for Marine Sensors at the ICBM site in Wilhelmshaven. "It hangs there in a prominent position so that as many people as possible can see it," says Garaba. If he has his way, however, the artwork could go on tour again: The ESA headquarters in Nordwijk (Netherlands) and the headquarters of The Ocean Cleanup in Rotterdam have expressed interest.
