SOUP: Nurdles Notebook

Soup is the description given to plastic debris suspended in the sea, with particular reference to the mass accumulation of rubbish that exists in an area of the North Pacific Ocean evocatively known as the Garbage Patch. Mandy Barker’s work aims to stimulate an emotional response in the viewer, combining an initial aesthetic attraction (a stellar constellation, perhaps?) with the dawning awareness of the reality facing the world today – a veritable tsunami of pollution. The plastics photographed have been salvaged by Barker from beaches around the world and represent a global collection that has existed for varying amounts of time in the earth’s oceans.