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The Sixth Gyre: Art, Oceans, and Plastic Pollution
O‘ahu Room, Open 8am – 4pm, Monday-Thursday
*Also check out The Nature of Waste: Global Artists Respond (see below)
Participating International Artists:
- Pam Longobardi, USA
- Susan Middleton, USA
- David Liittschwager, USA
- Andrew Hughes, UK
- Dianna Cohen, USA
- Andrew McNaughton, Kenya
- Michelle Lougee, USA
The seven artists collaborating in this exhibit have embarked on striking personal journeys of discovery, creating visual interpretations of the environmental problems caused by marine pollution. In its entirety their work directs us to an inescapable vantage point, one where it is no longer credible to maintain a culpable ignorance of the impacts plastic pollution is having on our oceans and the wildlife and human populations dependent on them. In combining these works the viewer’s experience mirrors this intimate path of discovery and insight each artist relates.
Taken together, this body of work is transformative, enabling viewers to interpret their own role in the creation of marine pollution. Specific pieces bridge the boundary between in situ representation of the topic and artistic imagination. The inherent creativity in the collaboration prompts the viewer to seek novel measures to reduce used plastics from ending up in our oceans rather than be overwhelmed by the challenge. The viewer ultimately shifts from blaming others to taking personal responsibility, engaged with the marine environment and therefore invested in finding solutions to reducing marine pollution sources.
Organizers:
- Pam Longobardi, Artist, Professor of Art, Georgia State University
- Wayne Sentman, Field Education Manager, Oceanic Society, San Francisco, CA
To read more about this exhibit and the participating artists, visit
This project has been supported by
- NOAA Marine Debris Division
- United Nations Environment Programme
- Ocean Conservancy
- Oceanic Society
- Georgia State University
- Surfrider Foundation Atlanta Chapter
- Scenic Treasures Safaris – Kenya
- Earth-Art by Amanda
- Flo Water LLC
- UniquEco Designs
- In The Bag

Sappho's Mirror I - Found ocean plastic from South Point, Hawaii Installation at Primo Piano LivinGallery Lecce, Italy 2010 Image from 'Drifters: Plastics, Pollution and Personhood' | © Pam Longobardi and CHARTA (Milan/NY) 2009

"Pineapples" Andrew McNaughton Made from flip-flops collected from beaches of Watamu, Kenya © Andy McNaughton 2010
The Nature of Waste: Global Artists Respond
Digital Exhibition Streaming at:
- Fifth International Marine Debris Conference (5IMDC) Exhibit Hall, Honolulu, HI • Mar 20-25, 2011
-
CENCIA Symposium, Georgia State University, Atlanta • April 11-15, 2011
Participating Artists:
- Andrew McNaughton- Kenya
- Andy Hughes – Cornwall, UK
- Angelika Heckhausen – Germany
- Barbara de Vries – Miami, USA
- Ciel Bergman- New Mexico, USA
- Dianna Cohen – California, USA
- Dyan Ferren – Alaska, USA
- Elizabeth Leader – New York, USA
- Fran Crowe – Suffolk, UK
- Ghost Nets – Australia
- Ha Schult – Germany
- Helen Chellin, Hawaii and California, USA
- Joan Hall – Missouri, USA
- John Dahlsen – Australia
- John Vonderlin – California
- Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang – California, USA
- Julie Ganser – Wisconsin, USA
- Kara Daving – Missouri, USA
- Kyle Browne – Maine, USA
- Maarten Vanden Eynde – Belgium
- Mark Dion -New York and Pennsylvania, USA
- Michelle Smith – Hawaii, USA
- Pam Longobardi – Georgia, USA
- Ramon Knoester- Netherlands
- Skelton Sea – Germany and Portugal
- Steve McPherson – Kent, UK
- Teresa Espaniola – California, USA