Assembly from plastic waste to call attention to sea level rise.
Several Floating Cities floated in different locations in the Netherlands since 2015.
2015 Zaltbommel 'Pracht in de Gracht'
2016 Leiderdorp 'Heemtuin Verbeeld'
2016 Oldeberkoop 'Open Stal'
2016 Deventer Kunstenlab 'Mission Impossible'
2017 Maasland 'LandArt'
2017 Den Haag Art The Hague 'Art of Playing'
2018 Drachten 'Simmerdeis'
2020 Lisbon Portugal Botanical Garden - canceld
2020 Den Haag Wateringse Veld
2020 Den Haag Museon Berlage Vijver
2021 Den Haag Haagse Hogeschool
2022 Woerden 'Singel Kunst'
Text for Plastic Congress Lisbon 2019
Visual artist Carolien Adriaansche lives in The Hague -4.5 meters below sea level. In the Netherlands, 9 out of 17 million inhabitants live and work below sea level. Whereas in most countries people talk about the highest point, in the Netherlands they talk about lowest point. Near Rotterdam at -6.7 meters. Now that it is known that climate change will cause the sea level to rise, the question is what consequences this will have for the Netherlands. Climate change/sea level rise is indirectly the result of our 24/7 consumption society and plastic waste is a very visible symbol of this consumption behavior.
Adriaansche is visual artist and fascinated by the beautiful shapes and colors of plastic, she marvels at the way we deal with plastic by throwing it away without much thought about its origin and destination. With her art, she calls attention to our plastic addiction and the consequences it brings. Since 2015, she built five 'Floating Cities' out of plastic waste to call attention to one of these consequences, sea level rise. The different 'Floating Cities' are constructed from color-sorted plastic waste that Adriaansche has been collecting in her studio for 25 years, such as shampoo and detergent bottles. However, this project also required larger objects that she collected during her bike rides from home to her studio. These included laundry baskets, shopping baskets and buckets, broken or otherwise. She also found the necessary trash in containers at construction sites. The basis of the cities are plastic crates from the market. Fruit and vegetable crates that used to be made of wood or cardboard are often made of plastic in recent years. Beneath the crates are empty PET bottles that create the buoyancy.
