Hazel Marti Challinor — Reflections on Soup
Hi I’m Hazel and I’ve had a fantastic time volunteering with Open Eye Gallery for LOOK Photo Biennial 2019 over the past few months. I’ve written about Mandy Barker’s collection Soup because it visually portrays the current discourse on our consumption of plastic and its detriment to sea life. Barker’s use of colour makes this piece really stand out for me because how can something that looks so pretty be so harmful! I enjoy photography that brings attention to important topics and challenges you, and I think Soup does this perfectly.
UK photographer Mandy Barker’s debut Soup (2011) is an important body of work, especially now in our current climate. Vivid colours of plastic contrasted with a black background make up the collection. However, there’s more than meets the eye regarding the beauty of the piece. Barker worked with scientists and has spent many years collecting plastic from beaches all over the world to create striking artwork. As of writing, Madrid is currently hosting the World Climate Summit and photography like Soup is an accessible way of showcasing factual evidence of plastic’s impact on the environment. The visual piece allows audiences to explore, in their own time, the damage of plastic in the seas without information overload. The collection’s title refers to the plastic suspended in the ocean whilst also being an allegory for the plastic animals ingest.
As most of the work is vibrant, the use of plastic can easily be mistaken for marine life, as seen in Bird’s Nest, where what looks like coral is in fact a fishing line. Barker is internationally recognised for her importance in bringing plastic pollution awareness to the forefront, and as a result was awarded the 2018 National Geographic Society Grant for Research and Exploration for her work with plastic found in the sea. Barker’s photography communicates how excessive plastic consumption is detrimental to marine life.
One of the more ironic, in a sense, works is Turtle. The plastic turtles featured in this piece are a result of a shipping container disaster, where 12 shipping containers carrying 28,800 children’s bath toys washed overboard. These innocuous toys inhabited the North Pacific Gyre for 16 years, adding to the increasing danger towards real turtles. The colour in this work resembles a constellation, also exposing potential damage to terrestrial life.
The thought-provoking collection perhaps evokes a sense of guilt in consumers, making audiences think about their use of plastic. Photography is a useful tool in communicating global issues, when audiences spend time scanning the images it’s only then that they get the most out of the piece. It’s great to have exhibitions like LOOK Photo Biennial highlight and explore global issues, not just national ones. Impactful photography like Soup challenges society into making smarter environmental choices so the oceans can be preserved for not only marine life, but also for future generations.
