The Great Wave off Kanagawa by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai is an iconic artwork depicting man against nature. Nowadays man-made pollution causes more harm and damage to humanity and to nature. The plastic pollution resulting from mass plastic production, single use plastics and packaging all contribute to the global pollution in huge quantities and have
reached some very distant places, deep in the ocean and even here in the middle of the Hamada Desert.
I was invited by Fair Saturday organization to join the movement of over 500 cities, 1000s of artists and organizations to create art with social and environmental impact. The movement is a counter response to Black Friday in America. For this I teamed up with the kids from Bubisher Library in Samara camp to create art using plastic waste from the streets and the surroundings area
of Samara camp.
Over the course of three weeks in November 2018, and with some generous support from MPDL, I have been collecting different plastic products to visually re-create The Great Wave of Hokusai. The artwork is constructed on 3 pieces of plywood.
The Great Wave of Plastics is an awakening call for the alarming situation of plastic pollution, not just in the Saharawi refugee camps but all over the world. Hokusai may have seen the danger in the claws of the Tsunami in the Great Wave, but I think that plastic pollution is the new Tsunami. The work was exhibited in Samara Camp followed by lectures by health doctors, a two hour discussion and a participatory workshop on creative plastic reuse.

You can watch a short video of the process of making the artwork here