The convenience of disposable plastic is also its downfall in terms of the damage it can cause to our environment. We are reminded of the vast island that has formed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean consisting of plastic refuse brought together by oceanic currents.
The fourth project with Brookfield Properties was an 18-foot tall, 34-foot wide tall Waterfall for the lobby of the iconic downtown Los Angeles building Bank of America Plaza. The installation reutilized the plastic materials from the Chandelier, reconfiguring them using a new rigging method, which set them against a dramatic granite wall in the minimalist lobby.
With the support of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche and the City of Toronto, the artist created “Waterfall” at Ontario House for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Recycling Alternatives, a local Vancouver depot, contributed the plastic refuse for the installation. Once this non-biodegradable material was washed and de-labelled by a large crew of volunteers and staff, the artist and her assistants knitted the objects by hand into a 20-foot tall, 27-foot wide gill net “quilt” using hundreds of cable ties.
Cadillac Fairview commissioned the artist to create a 1,050 square foot waterfall sculpture entitled “Above and Below” at Fairview Mall in Toronto. The installation, constructed from thousands of plastic items, was suspended in the large skylit atrium above an existing water fountain. The installation set up a playful juxtaposition between the actual water flowing below and the simulacrum of water-like transparent items above.
The 19-foot tall, 17-foot long sculpture situated in the Bay Adelaide Centre’s renowned lobby in downtown Toronto incorporates approximately 1,000 square feet of recycled plastic containers, a portion of which was collected from Brookfield’s ongoing recycling and waste diversion programs. The freestanding scaffold structure, in the shape of a horseshoe, enveloped the viewer when they stepped inside the shape. By using plastic bottles to represent water-like waves, the artist transforms the objects to suggest the materiality of the very substance they once contained.
The artist created a large–scale recycled plastic “Waterfall” for the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ontario. The 32-foot wide installation spilt down from the skylight in the gallery. Ambient sunshine illuminated the walls and floor, which framed the artwork, turning the space into a giant 13-foot tall lightbox, which reflected the constantly changing subtleties of the sky above.
At the 2008 Scotiabank Nuit Blanche festival in Toronto, professional riggers suspended a 30-foot tall, 74-foot wide “quilt” of recyclable plastic from the north side of the Ontario Power Generation Building. The City of Toronto rented 6,000 pounds of plastic bottles for one month from their recycling partner. Studio assistants and volunteers fabricated three quilts of bottles sewn into hockey arena netting and shaped them into sheets of falling water, weighing a total of 4000 pounds. The audience anticipated a lit-up Niagara Falls but on closer inspection found plastic trash, which had been magically transformed. Viewed by tens of thousands of people, the larger-than-life project won a Scotiabank People’s Choice Award.
