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Barry is a mixed media and an oil painter. His interest lies in exploring the interdependent relationships between people and their immediate environment, particularly the role of livestock in our food chain and our communion with the land and encompassing ocean.
My project for the exhibition Estranged comprises of a large three metre long Orange Roughy fish (NZ's poster child for the fishing industry) fabricated from the Auckland City Council 60 litre rubbish bags. The bladder of plastic will be inflated with air and incorporate an air pump mechanism to inflate and release the trapped air in a rhythmic pattern to imitate breathing . Working title: the breath of the moon For me, this work represents our relationship with the planet, the environment and the ocean. It's pollution is caused from the discarded remnants of our consumer society. Once I throw something away, discarded into the trash, it becomes invisible to me. I sometimes seem to be living as if aloft, separate and above other life forms, unthinking of the impact my privileged life is having upon my surroundings and the wildlife that shares this planet with me. The title comes from thinking about the interconnected nature of earth and the moon. How it is the gravitational pull of the moon that creates the motion in the sea, like a breath, the sea is the lungs of the earth and we are clogging it with plastic. |