On a daily basis, we use straws, plastic bottles, and plastic bags, thinking, well, I’m just one person, what difference does it make? This sort of dangerous mass mentality, and the belief that we, as individuals, have no real impact on the world, has led to ginormous piles of non-bio-degradable waste around the earth.
Artivist Benjamin Von Wong had the same mentality, “what do small decisions matter?” and one day he found himself surrounded by mountains of trash with no end, piles of people’s small decisions.
Since then, he has gathered activists in the forms of artists, NGOs, volunteers, and companies to create art installations that bring the devastating magnitude and impact of our trash in front of our eyes.
His installations feature staggering numbers of waste: 168,000 straws, which took six months to collect from the streets of Vietnam; 10, 000 plastic bottles, the number of bottles an average American will use in their lifetime. The installations show the death of nature in the midst of our consumerist attitude, with the hope of raising awareness in audiences that are faced with the dark reality.
Scroll down to check out Wong’s work:
