In her latest project, Paper Life! Ocean, German paper artist Tina Kraus is trying to raise awareness about the impact human pollution of the ocean is having on marine life.
As part of the project, Kraus combines paper sculptures of aquatic animals with man-made objects and shows how they change their surroundings. One of Kraus’ creations shows a hermit crab using a rusty tin can as his home, while another one sees a squid tangled in a discarded fishing net.
“With the sculptures I would like to draw attention to the acute problems that our oceans are facing and convey information on the topic in an appealing way,” Kraus explains on her website.
The Paper Life! Ocean series features four paper sculptures of animals affected by ocean pollution, with more expected to come. Kraus also created several paper illustrations that further describe the thought behind the project.
“In the past decade, I have become more and more worried about the future,” the artist told Colossal about the motivation for the project. “The climate crisis, pollution, and the loss of biodiversity already have a big impact on nature and life on this planet.”
Besides the Paper Life! Ocean series, Kraus has worked on a number of other paper art projects in the past. She created pop-up books, paper sculptures, and life-like paper works. Check out more of her works below.
