Tuula Närhinen

Plastic Ocean:
Mermaid Tears and Frutti di Mare

My first view of Plastic Ocean was a set of two composite photographs, prepared for a group exhibition at Forum Box, an artist cooperative in Helsinki. She had decided to investigate the problem of plastic in the ocean. Mermaid Tears was an elaborate necklace fashioned from plastic particles she had separated from the flotsam around her island studio. The series of sieves, similar to tools used by archeologists, as well as a photo and samples of the debris were also part of the work. Frutti di mare was thirty-six sculptures set in aquarium-like containers along with colorful photos of each creature. Her brief text states that the creatures were "made of plastic waste washed up on the seashore in Helsinki. They represent a new kind of marine species from a previously unknown sea called Plastic Ocean." The photos of the halfsubmerged creatures made them look colorful and charming, not unlike the wonders we see floating by behind the glass of the local aquarium. But viewed in their white plastic cases on metal shelves, they looked more like organized trash.

The work is visually impressive and makes you think. The point was somewhere between the artist’s response to her environment and the viewer’s response to the art. And I asked myself, in the spirit of an investigative writer looking at the work of an investigative artist, what made her notice the plastic? And how did little bits of plastic trash come to be known as "mermaid tears"?

>> See the entire presentation of Plastic Ocean and Detritus Art and Plastic Science by Paul Kahn in PDF format

Frutti di Mare, Tuula Närhinen