Reuse project 0:Plastic

In the winter of '98 I began collecting plastic from the beach.

 The idea was to go where my eye went, and investigate.

 I would take two plastic shopping bags and fill them in an hour.

 The rules were I had to collect everything unnatural that I saw,

except cigarette butts, which were too numerous and gross.

 Back at the home stead I would dump the contents of the bags out

 on the lawn and hose it down. Later I would wash the loot in a sink

 with antibacterial soap. I took great pleasure cleaning each piece

 with the attention and care you'd give your dinner ware. 

Then with this giant pile of colorful detritus I'd start to make these

 things that you see above here. It is an extremely  satisfying process, one which evolved so naturally and continues to interest me as much as it did 12 years ago when i started. These pieces are made from 100% found beach plastic. There are about 80 of them so far total, most are sold and the majority live in Paris with a collector named Phillipe. I should try and track him down...

check out these links below for more to do with plastic

http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/

http://www.algalita.org/voyage/09-north-pacific-gyre-exploration.html