Plastication Imagination: seafront exhibition

Marybeth Haas shares her motivations and passion behind this series of eight images, currently exhibited on Hastings seafront on the promenade advertising boards. A Coastal Currents and Photo Hastings event, showing until 30 September 2018.

The images are displayed in four pairs of advertising boards along the promenade. As you face the sea, the first two boards are just left of Hastings Pier; the other six are right of the pier before Warrior square. It felt important to display them on the seafront, because it is entirely relevant to the subject and I like making art that is accessible to all, especially to people who may not be interested in visiting a gallery.

These images are about our need to wake up to our collective responsibility for cleaning up our messy lifestyles; I wanted it to be both playful and serious. It is not about judgement and criticism! I’m reaching out to people’s hearts because the heart can hear things that the mind would rather deny out of fear or complacency. I want to inspire positive action because we can all make a difference with our everyday choices – choices about what we buy, what we eat and drink as well as how we dispose of packaging and things we no longer need or want: we can choose to buy things with less packaging; we can choose to pick up rubbish when we see it on the beach and on the pavement so it doesn’t end up in the sea, instead of expecting someone else to do it.

We need to use our imaginations in order to evolve our ways of being and I’m convinced we can enjoy at least some of this process. It feels good to pick up litter and care for our local environment!

Mainstream media is now spreading the word that rubbish is polluting the seas and harming eco systems and wildlife around the world and we are finally beginning to realise just how much we are poisoning ourselves and our home with our wasteful lifestyles.

Some of this news is shocking and horrific and could have the effect of shutting down people’s hearts and minds because one might ask: ‘What can I do?’ in the face of such large scale calamity. I believe that all small actions matter because they accumulate to make a real difference, just as all small bits of rubbish add up to make mountains and whirlpools of trash around the world.

Plastication Imagination is about encouraging people to not only take personal responsibility for the refuse, rubbish and plastic waste in their daily lives, but also to use their imagination to find ways to make changes that will serve to clean up our habits and minimize future waste. It serves to remind us that we are all truly connected to each other and to our home planet; our individual choices impact the whole and also inevitably come around to impact our lives personally.

There is no such thing as ‘throwing away’! When I hear that phrase it sounds utterly mad! ‘Away’ has to be somewhere on our precious Earth, even if its hundreds of miles away from where we are, in ‘someone else’s’ back yard or country. And, I don’t think feeling bad about that is helpful, apart from perhaps stimulating a desire to take action for change. I believe if we apply our creativity to the rubbish dilemma then we will find new ways of living while enjoying and taking care of our home.

There are many people already finding creative solutions around the world and there is a growing crowd of individuals and groups going out of their way to help clean up locally. Every time I have been out doing my spontaneous mini beach cleans in recent weeks, I have been stopped by people saying thank you or offering to help, which is wonderful. A sense of community can be created when we see something that needs attention and attend to it together for everyone’s benefit.

 

 

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There’s lots of information about plastic rubbish and tips on what you can do about it at www.conscious-arts.co.uk/plastication-imagination

Also check out Marybeth’s previous article Active Beach Love

Plastic Free Hastings facebook page

Global Citizen’s 7 Ways To Cut Junk Plastic From Your Life

 

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