Making Trashion

Making Trashion

Marina DeBris Disrupts the Art World with Her Ocean Trash Creations

by Michael Daks

Marina Debris is an artist and environmental activist, an ‘Artivist’ by her own definition. She is a fervent antiplastic campaigner whose art is created from materials discarded or washed up on the beach.

Her work is a direct response to her love of the sea, her driving desire to stop human pollution, and is used to draw attention to the way our careless behaviour is directly affecting the health of our planet. Marina chose her apt and humorous pseudonym to reflect the work she makes and also to separate her art persona from her commercial work and identity.

Originally born in Detroit, Michigan, Marina studied graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design before moving to New York City. Her career in design led her to London, Los Angeles, and eventually to Sydney, Australia where I spoke to her early one morning in April via video link.

It was when she moved to Los Angeles, California and to Venice Beach specifically, that Marina noticed how much garbage was washing up or being left on the beach. Her thoughts: “Woah! Have I been living in a bubble or something? How is this okay?”

She started collecting discarded plastics, bottles, and cans on her morning runs, eventually joining ocean advocacy groups like Heal the Bay, which is a non-profit environmental advocacy group based in Santa Monica, California dedicated to protecting the local coastline and surrounding watersheds.

One of the major oceanic problems stems from the five Gyres, the garbage patches of accumulated trash (mostly plastics and microplastics) that collect in different parts of the oceans. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch lies in an area between Hawaii and California and currently is about twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France.

It is estimated that between eight and twelve million tonnes of plastic enters our ocean every year, adding to the estimated 150 million tonnes that are already floating there. The WWF calculates that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Already, 100 million marine animals die each year from plastic waste alone.

I really found much of my own research incredibly depressing and my anger levels rising as my Facebook feed is now full of sea turtles trapped in discarded netting, herons and pelicans with fishing lines wrapped around their beaks, and seals with plastic bags tied around their necks. Even the fish we eat is now full of microplastics.

Read more at https://issuu.com/rareluxuryliving/docs/raremagazinesustainablepages/152