slideshow

Washed Ashore: From Beach Trash to Ocean Art

From a distance, Henry the Fish looks like a typical quirky and colorful sculpture you'd find in a small beach town. But when you look up close, Henry begins to change. His bright yellow and red scales are pieces of plastic, including lighters, beach shovels, and toothbrushes among the larger scraps. His large lips are pieces of Styrofoam and abandoned buoys. And his glittering round eyes were once a black buoy, two plastic rings, and cut water bottles from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It's a shocking transition as a fun work of art shifts into a symbol of our society's plastic consumption and waste before your eyes. But the meaning goes even deeper: all of the pieces of plastic trash that make up Henry's frame were collected from the beach in a community effort led by Angela Haseltine Pozzi, the Executive Director and Lead Artist at Washed Ashore based in Bandon, Oregon. "It’s a project to show the everyday person how much garbage is coming up on the beaches," she says. "I aim to grab people with the power of the sculptures, which are beautiful and then become horrifying."

 

Editor's note: From May 27-September 16, 2016 visit the Zoo to see a larger-than-life exhibit of 17 Washed Ashore marine wildlife sculptures—from jellyfish to sharks—made entirely of plastic pollution directly recovered from oceans.

Tags: Art Ocean Trash
Henry the Fish is made completely out of colorful plastic that washed up on Oregon beaches.
Preview Lidia the Seal is made entirely of plastic trash from the ocean.
Preview A close-up of Lidia the Seal—like the view you'd get if you approach the sculpture in real life—shows the gory details of the everyday objects that wash up on the beach.
Preview A life-size sea star sculpture made from plastic trash.
Preview The Gyre is an abstract piece symbolizing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a large ocean vortex that collects trash from around the Pacific Ocean.
Preview A volunteer sorts washed plastic collected from the beach into buckets by color and size.
Preview Plastic sorted by color.
Preview The Fish Bite Fish is made exclusively from pieces of plastic that washed ashore with bite marks from fish and other animals to make the point that animals trying to eat floating plastic is a real problem.
Preview A sculpture of a giant octopus made of ocean debris
Preview The colorful parrotfish sculpture is made entirely of ocean plastic trash.
Preview A whalebone rib cage replica made from empty white bottles.
Preview After collecting, cleaning and sorting the plastic, the community came back together to construct the whale ribcage.
Preview A plastic bottle jellyfish sculpture.
Preview A fish made from pieces of plastic found on the beach swims above a bleached reef made of Styrofoam.
Preview A volunteer puts together the bleached coral reef by stacking pieces of Styrofoam onto wire.
Henry the Fish is made completely out of colorful plastic that washed up on Oregon beaches.

Henry the Giant Fish

Credit: Washed Ashore
Henry the Giant Fish was Angela's first idea for the Washed Ashore project. "If I make a giant bright fish, everyone will get their picture taken in front of it," she says—and, in the process, they'll learn about the harms of ocean plastic. Now it sits outside the Washed Ashore offices in Bandon, Oregon and at least 50 people a day pull over for a photo op, she says.
Lidia the Seal is made entirely of plastic trash from the ocean.

Lidia the Seal

Credit: Washed Ashore
Lidia the Seal sits on top of a pile of netting, rope and buoy. The sculpture itself is colorful and playful—but opens up the conversation to how discarded plastics and trash can harm marine life like seals.
A close-up of Lidia the Seal—like the view you'd get if you approach the sculpture in real life—shows the gory details of the everyday objects that wash up on the beach.

Lidia the Seal Detail

Credit: Washed Ashore
A close-up of Lidia the Seal—like the view you'd get if you approach the sculpture in real life—shows the gory details of the everyday objects that wash up on the beach. Have you thrown out any objects like these that could have washed to the sea and back ashore? Items shown here include a Frisbee, a toy car wheel, an umbrella handle, a juice bottle, and the clasp of a cooler.
A life-size sea star sculpture made from plastic trash.

A Musical Sea Star

Credit: Washed Ashore

The musical sea star is crafted with glass bottles that can be played with a mallet like a xylophone. Watch a video of Ward Spangler, lead percussionist from the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra playing the sea star.

The Gyre is an abstract piece symbolizing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a large ocean vortex that collects trash from around the Pacific Ocean.

The Plastic Gyre

Credit: Washed Ashore

The Gyre is a more abstract piece symbolizing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a large ocean vortex that collects trash from around the Pacific Ocean. A lot of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is very degraded and consists not of large pieces of garbage and plastic, but small plastic particles invisible to the human eye that can still harm animals.

A volunteer sorts washed plastic collected from the beach into buckets by color and size.

Sorting Plastic from the Beach

Credit: Washed Ashore
A volunteer sorts washed plastic collected from the beach into buckets by color and size. Washed Ashore uses all but around 5% of the plastic volunteers collect from the beaches in its sculptures. Some of the plastic is so degraded by waves and light while floating in the ocean that it isn't strong enough to be used in sculpture.
Plastic sorted by color.

Sorted Beach Plastic

Credit: Washed Ashore
Large pieces of plastic are sorted by color into large troughs. After coming in from the beach, the plastic is hosed down, soaked in biodegradable soap, and dried in the sun before it's sorted by color, size and type. Holes are drilled into each piece individually, and then they are woven together with thread or wire—never using any extra plastic, even in glue.
The Fish Bite Fish is made exclusively from pieces of plastic that washed ashore with bite marks from fish and other animals to make the point that animals trying to eat floating plastic is a real problem.

Fish Bite Fish

Credit: Washed Ashore

The Fish Bite Fish is made exclusively from pieces of plastic that washed ashore with bite marks from fish and other animals to make the point that animals trying to eat floating plastic is a real problem.

A sculpture of a giant octopus made of ocean debris

Octavia the Octopus

Credit: Washed Ashore

Octavia embodies the curiosity and intelligence characteristic of the octopus. She inquisitively tinkers and plays with her surrounding environment.

The colorful parrotfish sculpture is made entirely of ocean plastic trash.

Priscilla the Parrotfish

Credit: Washed Ashore

Priscilla the Parrotfish is strikingly beautiful―showcasing a range of bright colors and large grasping teeth. There is absolutely no dye used by the Washed Ashore team, plastic is made in all the colors necessary. 

A whalebone rib cage replica made from empty white bottles.

Whalebone Rib Cage

Credit: Washed Ashore
This whalebone rib cage is a simple structure, made by just stringing empty white bottles onto wire. Even though whales are large animals, the accidental consumption of plastic or other ocean trash can kill them.
After collecting, cleaning and sorting the plastic, the community came back together to construct the whale ribcage.

Building the Whale Ribcage

Credit: Washed Ashore
After collecting, cleaning and sorting the plastic, the community came back together to construct the whale ribcage.
A plastic bottle jellyfish sculpture.

Plastic Jellyfish

Credit: Washed Ashore
This plastic bottle jellyfish reminds us that even invertebrates are at risk. "Even sea jellies are found with plastic particles in their translucent bodies," Pozzi says.
A fish made from pieces of plastic found on the beach swims above a bleached reef made of Styrofoam.

Bleached Styrofoam Reef

Credit: Washed Ashore
A fish made from pieces of plastic found on the beach swims above a bleached reef made of Styrofoam. While Angela Pozzi focuses her artwork on outreach about the harms of ocean plastic, she wants to raise awareness of as many different issues as possible, including coral bleaching.
A volunteer puts together the bleached coral reef by stacking pieces of Styrofoam onto wire.

Building the Bleached Reef

Credit: Washed Ashore
A volunteer puts together the bleached coral reef by stacking pieces of Styrofoam onto wire.