A new public art piece was unveiled in Abbotsford in September, highlighting the effects of plastics on the world.
Seven Oak Leaves was installed on the wall of Sevenoaks Shopping Centre, and was created partially by the very people who work and shop there.
Artist Roger Brenninkmeyer, founder of Plastic Essence Collaborative (PECO), has been working with consumer plastics to create signage and artwork for corporations and public art. This installment project began last year with the collection of plastics through a kiosk in the mall.
Seven Oak Leaves was created by melting down about 21,000 plastic bags. It’s an enormous amount of plastic to begin with, but when brought down to a melting point, is compressed into a substance thicker than molasses.
Brenninkmeyer and his “co-conspirator” Connor Simpson work with this material – in a well-ventilated workspace and wearing protective masks – and create intriguing shapes and designs that they feel will help convey the message each piece is intended to convey.
For Seven Oak Leaves, they wanted the end result to reflect Abbotsford and the surrounding region. The design reflects the community and businesses in the city, including local farming, wineries, the Abbotsford Airshow and Sevenoaks itself.
But mostly, the piece is designed to get the viewer thinking about consumerism, single-use plastics, the environment and, essentially, reduction of waste.
Brenninkmeyer and Simpson were part of an unveiling at the centre on Sept. 13. The environmental focus on the piece should resonate greatly with the people of Abbotsford.
“The key theme to the piece that I want everyone to know about is it’s also an honour to everyone who lost so much during the flood,” Brenninkmeyer said, and the blue portions of the piece represent water.
Brenninkmeyer’s background is in marketing and graphics and, upon moving to Vancouver from Ontario, he decided to delve into creating graphic art out of waste.
They started by creating artwork for people’s homes, but have moved onto creating pieces for corporations like Morguard (Sevenoaks Shopping Centre’s managers) and The Body Shop. They hope to create more public art and continue sharing the message that creative solutions are going to be needed to really reduce plastic waste.
To underscore the importance of managing plastics, locally and globally, he noted that if you were to line up all the plastic B.C. uses in one year, in the form of one-ton hay bales, that line would stretch from Vancouver to Revelstoke.
While he said PECO is a small operation, it’s a start. And he’d love to see more people coming up with creative solutions to using post-consumer plastics.
“This is a small example,” he said. “This won’t do a lot to curb the actual crisis. But imagine if 5,000 people like me became active across Canada.”
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