Alejandro Duran has a very unique way of raising awareness to how pollution and littering can have an effect on the other side of the world. Working on a single stretch of coastline in Sian Ka’an, Mexico’s largest federally-protected reserve, the artist collects bits of trash that has washed up on this Caribbean shore from locations all over the world. He then uses the refuse to create site-specific sculptures for an ongoing project appropriately titled, Washed Up.
“Over the course of this project, I have identified plastic waste from fifty nations on six continents that have washed ashore along the coast of Sian Ka’an” said Duran “I have used this international debris to create color-based, site-specific sculptures. Conflating the hand of man and nature, at times I distribute the objects the way the waves would; at other times, the plastic takes on the shape of algae, roots, rivers, or fruit, reflecting the infiltration of plastics into the natural environment.”
By creating aesthetically pleasing landscapes from a disheartening medium, it’s Duran’s hope open the publics eyes and that draw attention to the global catastrophe of ocean pollution.
