From birds ensnared by fishing nets, to giant tortoises ingesting plastic bags, to coral reefs covered in refuse—ocean trash has become a global issue with far-reaching ramifications.
To bring awareness to this issue, Mumbai-based visual artist Sameer Tawde has created Holy Boulevard, a series of sculptures constructed with styrofoam waste collected from the ocean.
被渔网套住的禽鸟、误食塑料袋的巨型海龟、满是垃圾覆盖的珊瑚礁……随着洋流漂浮来去的海洋垃圾，已快速地蔓延到全球。
居住在印度孟买的视觉艺术家 Sameer Tawde 在海洋上用废弃的泡沫塑料所建造的“海市蜃楼”创作了一个摄影系列《Holy Boulevard》（意为“神圣的林荫大道”），希望以此唤起人们对海洋保护的认知。
Tawde is an active volunteer in the community and recycling is a cause that’s near and dear to his heart. Seeing the rising levels of marine pollution near Mumbai has been disheartening. So for this project, he decided to use styrofoam—an environmentally damaging, non-biodegradable material—to create monuments to the sea’s beauty. “I grew up by the sea, and I’m inspired by the endlessness and vastness of the ocean,” he says. “This is why I wanted to create these serene sculptures on the water. I had to make sure the material didn’t drift away, so I had limited time to make and shoot them. The tide conditions had to be right. After shooting, I collect the structures and disassemble them. They’re then packed up and sent to a vendor in Dharavi, Mumbai who’ll recycle it.”
Sameer 在孟买从事社区服务，致力于垃圾回收利用选项目，一直以来这都是他最关切的议题。眼见周边海域的污染日趋严重，他非常忧心，因而决定用泡沫塑料（即聚苯乙烯，一种对环境有害的、不可生物降解的材料）来创造一种“海市蜃楼”。“我是看着海洋长大的，正是这无垠、宁静和浩瀚的海洋，激发了我对空间的想象和创造。这就是为什么我希望在海平面上创作这个作品。”他说，“我需要确保塑料装置不会被潮汐带走，所以只能在合适的时间里拍摄。拍摄结束后，这些临时搭建的泡沫建筑都会被运回工作坊拆掉，然后打包好送回到孟买达拉维的小贩那里回收。”
The project, which includes building the sculptures and photographing them, took an entire two months, but it was a rewarding experience for Tawde. Through his work, he hopes to inspire people to think about how our individual actions affect the natural world. “These constructs are meant to be my vision of utopia; it’s satirical commentary about the modern ‘utopias’ we live in,” he explains. “This project is a reflection on the relationship between humans and the environment.”
Sameer 整个项目为期两个多月，他说自己创作这个作品的本意就是让人们思考人对自然造成的影响。“从社会角度来看，人造环境被认为是人类的终极发展目标。虽然我创造了这个乌托邦，但我也对我们社会的乌托邦作了讽刺性的评论，从而反映了我们人类与环境之间的关系。”他说。
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Website: www.sameertawde.com
Instagram: @sameertawde
Contributor: Chen Yuan
English Translation: David Yen
