‘may the winds not carry us out to sea’ by new zealand-based artist brydee rood physically and socially connects us through the materiality of the sculpture with dialogues of plastic pollution and the act of flailing precariously and urgently towards preserving the earth’s vital ocean habitats, critically engaging with mankind’s relationship to climate change and alarmingly polluted seas. the installation is created by collaging reused sections of assorted single-use plastic trash bags.

brydee rood creates a gigantic windsock sculpture to explore the issue of plastic pollution

 

 

the various bags come from rood’s personal collection of past installations and performances — over a decade of accumulated visual research into plastic waste materials. the experimental soft sculpture was developed and installed inside a custom sized clear marquee at auckland’s waterfront eastern viaduct, erected beside the sea for the united nations environment programme, supported by panuku development auckland, greenpeace new zealand, and the kiwi bottle drive.

brydee rood creates a gigantic windsock sculpture to explore the issue of plastic pollution

 

 

the ephemeral bus-sized sculpture measures out a four times airport scale, proportioned windsock at 14600 mm long and 3600 mm in diameter at the mouth and 1000 mm at the tail, buoyantly billowed full by the breeze of a single fan. technically, the sculpture is reversible, it has been quilted in sections, tacked with brightly colored tapes and joined with seams of clear wide packaging tape inside and out.

brydee rood creates a gigantic windsock sculpture to explore the issue of plastic pollution

 

 

the massive floppy sculptural form is a problem too large to handle alone, a metaphor for the reality of the scale of crisis we face in cleaning our oceans of unwanted plastics and striving to make them pure again. airing this artwork in public space highlights our need to join together in removing disposable plastics from our everyday lives, inciting change in our societies and habits of consumption through art, acting as catalysts towards a plastic-free future. the installation was launched on 2018 world environment day and installed through to the evening of world oceans day.

brydee rood creates a gigantic windsock sculpture to explore the issue of plastic pollution

 

video by brydee rood

 

brydee rood creates a gigantic windsock sculpture to explore the issue of plastic pollution

 

 

brydee rood creates a gigantic windsock sculpture to explore the issue of plastic pollution

 

 

brydee rood creates a gigantic windsock sculpture to explore the issue of plastic pollution

 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

 

edited by: maria erman | designboom