“As a child, I would walk over beaches and through fields and forests to collect beautiful shells, shimmering stones, feathers and funnily shaped branches. Much later, after I had moved from Holland to South Africa, I found myself doing the same thing. Only to discover, that I started filling my pockets with trash instead of treasure. Plastic from the Ocean – colourful and beautiful in its own tragic way. 

‘Plastic Ocean’ is an art project, which I started to create awareness around pollution to try and prevent (or at least reduce) the use of plastic. In making artistic sculptures out of the objects I find, I try to evoke an emotional response  from my audience by creating a contradiction – a clash between initial aesthetic attraction and after a second look : repulsion and the realisation of the tragedy  trash causes. Our beaches are covered in plastic confetti and there really is nothing to celebrate.”

Amen.

ps. You can follow along on Thirza’s Instagram feed. Again, beautiful and tragic all in one breath.