Nathalie Rey

Twenty years ago, a large group of plastic ducks “escaped” from their container during a violent storm. Carried on ocean currents across the globe, these emblems of childhood quickly captured the public’s attention. So much so, in fact, that these ducks soon became popular in the contemporary art world, and, in one particularly avaricious case, a company manufactured imitations to satisfy the demands of thousands of collectors. But not all the interest was purely artistic or capitalistic. Scientists realized that, as the ducks were often found on distant and unexpected shores, they could perhaps teach us much about the complexities of ocean currents. Environmentalists, too, saw in them a conspicuous example of the permanence of all the plastic refuse we dump into the sea. For me, however, the ducks symbolize our globalized world, a world in which economy, ecology, science and art are all juxtaposed.