Nathalie Rey

In Plastic Sea, I’ve crocheted the shape of the world’s seas onto a circular fabric. All landmasses, however, have been left empty and can only be understood as an unstitched relief. Making these works was painstaking, involving thousands of hours of labor, and as I filled in these shapes I imagined our seas likewise filling as the discarded products of our land-based productions slowly emptied into them. At some point in the future, it seemed to me, there would be no longer a dividing line between the two. Land and sea would have become one. 

As with much of my work, there is a tension between these internal thoughts and the objects produced by them. The beads I use are plastic as well, mass produced in a factory in China, and so are part of the problem I’m exploring. Yet they are also the beautiful and highly versatile media for works of art. These ambiguities reflect those with the use of plastic itself. Disposable and unnecessary items, such as used bags and beverage containers, form much of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch; but plastics, when shaped into water purifiers and medical components, provide many of the world’s most vulnerable with invaluable support.