Designed to raise awareness of the devastating impacts of ocean plastics Another Wave is Possible, by Wren Miller, will be based outside the entrance to the University of Bristol’s Royal Fort Gardens throughout September.
The eye-catching 4m high and 6m long sculpture highlights the scale of littering in Bristol, having been made with 90kg of waste, equivalent to the volume of litter dropped on Baldwin Street on one busy Friday night.
Bristol residents may well already be familiar with the artwork, which has previously been on display on a floating pontoon in Bristol Harbour.
Artist Wren Miller said: “I choose to work with these materials because they tell a story of our convenience-driven, throw-away culture. When we cast away a plastic drink bottle or a crisp packet, we instantly forget about it, but these things could eventually dissolve into microplastics – plastic pollution. What gets into the water courses, flows out to sea. It’s not visible to us on land, but we are affecting wildlife, choking our seas and cutting off an important source of the world’s oxygen supply.
“The students at the University of Bristol are from across the globe, coming from so many backgrounds. But we all share one common truth: humanity is the biggest threat to this planet’s health and if we continue as we are currently, we will have blown it. I hope that the sculpture will inspire the university’s students to start conversations, which can lead to change.”