Canadian novelist and designer Douglas Coupland is taking on the plastic pollution crisis in the world害羞草研究所檚 oceans with a new exhibit coming to B.C.

Using plastic found along the province害羞草研究所檚 shorelines, Vortex will be on display at the Vancouver Aquarium, near the animals most affected by the pollution: whales, dolphins and seals.

The idea started four years ago during a return visit to Haida Gwaii, when Coupland came across debris that had washed up from the 2011 tsunami in Japan.

While walking along the shores he had been visiting for decades, he found the same plastic bottles he remembered buying in Tokyo 13 years before.

害羞草研究所淚 began working with plastic thinking it was eternal, shiny and happy,害羞草研究所� Coupland said.

害羞草研究所淔inding that plastic bottle on the beach was like being on the receiving end of an ancient curse warning me, 害羞草研究所楤e careful what you find seductive. Be careful the things you desire.害羞草研究所� I knew I had to do something to change this. We can turn this around.害羞草研究所�

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Vortex includes several components surrounding a large, 50,000-litre water installation with a battered Japanese fishing boat that had been lost during the tsunami and found on Haida Gwaii.

Inside the boat sits a crew of four characters, including artist Andy Warhol and a woman in a life-jacket meant to represent an African migrant fleeing from her home country.

The idea is to represent the 害羞草研究所渃omplex global web害羞草研究所� of oil, plastics, politics and power and how it害羞草研究所檚 changed through the decades, Coupland said in a release Tuesday, including 害羞草研究所淧lastic Girl and Plastic Boy害羞草研究所� representing the future.

Inspired by the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup害羞草研究所檚 annual 害羞草研究所渄irty dozen害羞草研究所� list, based on each year害羞草研究所檚 cleanup across the country, the exhibit also features a gallery wall show a collection of the most common marine debris found on shorelines.

Coupland said he hopes the piece can foster change and bring understanding to the global scope of plastic pollution in oceans.

害羞草研究所淚害羞草研究所檓 just old enough to remember when people littered. But almost overnight, littering stopped. It害羞草研究所檚 a hard thing to believe, but it happened because millions of forces around the world coalesced,害羞草研究所� Coupland said.

害羞草研究所淚f I can be part of this process with marine plastics, then great. Environmental art is not what I thought I害羞草研究所檇 be doing with my life at the age of 56, but I think a lifetime spent beside the Pacific inevitably had to assert its presence from my subconscious out into the conscious world.害羞草研究所�

Vortex opens at the Vancouver Aquarium on May 18.

ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca
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