BLUE FIN TUNA

My work focuses on the environmental and social issues of our time. Blue Fin Tuna is a statement about the depletion of marine food sources and the plastic contamination in our food and oceans. The installation comprises hundreds of ceramic plankton sculptures and plastic garbage (see inset photo) to form a two-dimensional blue fin tuna, true to size and colour.

Blue fin tuna are overfished globally, which I acknowledged by hanging the individual components from plastic fishing wire. And I included sculptures of both phytoplankton and zooplankton because of their importance to the aquatic food chain. As nutrients, they eventually become a part of larger fish species, exemplified by the tuna. The small sculptures are predominantly hand-built in porcelain and loosely based on plankton morphology. They are stained with underglazes, glazed and/or painted with acrylic, yet another plastic material.

The plastic garbage used in the artwork was collected from the North Sea beach in Belgium during a vacation, from a hospital lab, from the street and from several households for the duration of one year. In that sense, the work is a testament to the types of plastic used every day in 2019, including lids and cups, rope, acrylic yarn, cutlery, buttons, beads, toys, straws, clips, fasteners, a dental floss pick, a toothbrush, expired identification cards, hotel keys, tubes, a loofah and a range of packaging materials. Once in the water, these objects break down into micro- and nanoplastics, which move through the food chain to end up on our plates — we truly are what we eat.

Hilde Lambrechts (h-art.ca) is a largely self-taught artist with a PHD in biology. In 2012, she was a finalist for the Ottawa Arts Council’s RBC emerging artist award. Her works have appeared in exhibits and are held in private collections around the world. Born in Belgium, she became a Canadian citizen in 2015.