Collaboration with Mandy Barker
Artist: Mandy Barker | Art Direction: Marcela Terán, Greenpeace UK
‘WHERE? – No one wears a watch’, is the first of a series of images artist Mandy Barker produced for Greenpeace's End Ocean Plastics campaign, using plastic she collected as part of a Greenpeace expedition in Scotland.
During the summer of 2017, the Greenpeace Beluga II boat set sail along Scotland’s coast to investigate and document the impact of plastic pollution in these areas.
We felt it was vital that both the wonder of the marine environments we would visit, and the indignation at the plastic pollution that we expected to find, could be perceived not only by those present in the expedition but also by the entire Greenpeace community and wider audiences, inspiring us to continue to take action together on this issue.
In addition to bringing on board fantastic documentary photographers and filmmakers, we invited artist Mandy Barker to collaborate with us and join the expedition. Mandy’s award-winning conceptual photography depicts ocean plastics in fascinating and attractive compositions that provide new depths to our understanding of the issue, and the need for immediate action to #EndOceanPlastics.
In her own words Mandy described the experience and what the piece represents:
"Having an opportunity to visit the remote islands and inaccessible beaches of the Inner Hebrides, to collect and record marine plastic, continues my work and single obsession of the past 7 years. Photographing recovered plastic from worldwide locations to raise awareness of this critical issue, this time closer to home, was no less important.
The image I created ‘WHERE? – No one wears a watch’ was inspired by the way the plastic presented itself on the beach in these secluded bays. The caption came about by way of coincidence, perfectly summed up by one of the residents on the island of Sanday, who commented that on these islands, “no one knows what day it is, and no one wears a watch”. Ironically, the very next day I found a child’s watch washed up on the shore. This caption not only reflects the human isolation of living on these islands, but if no one wears a watch, it must have ‘travelled’ from elsewhere. It is likely that the watch spent time in the sea – providing a metaphor of how long it takes plastic to break down – which can be up to hundreds of years – and also the time it is taking us to seriously address our over consumption of plastic and responsibility for its disposal."
At the end of the expedition, Greenpeace presented a petition to MSP Roseanna Cunningham calling for the introduction of a deposit return scheme (DRS) for drinks containers in Scotland, and gifted her a print of Mandy Barker's artwork as a beautifully stark reminder of the issue.
