Beach Clean

Beach Clean, 2017, is an installation with a time lapse video, collected marine plastic debris cast in ice, and an atmospheric deposition sample.

During my residency with The Arctic Circle, marine plastic debris was collected from beaches at Smeerenburg and Fram Bay in Svalbard, as well as daily samples of dust and other particles, which settle out of the atmosphere.

Atmospheric deposition samples were collected on behalf of Dr Stephanie Wright and her team at the MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, King’s College London, to assess whether microplastics contaminate the air in this remote location.

Plastic found on the beaches was brought back to Longyearbyen where I recorded a time lapse video documenting our group cataloguing what we had collected. It was screened alongside an ice cast that melted over the course of four days, slowly revealing a selection of the collected plastic artefacts.

Plastic debris collected included: fishing nets, ropes, strapping band, boots, shoes, rubber gloves, bottles, and many miscellaneous plastic fragments.

Director, Camera, Edit, Sound: Hannah Scott
Sampling Camera: Caroline Landau; Ash Goh Hua
Sampling filmed in the Arctic Ocean on 11 October 2017
Time-lapse filmed in Longyearbyen, Svalbard on 17 October 2017

Beach Clean was installed from 24-27 November 2017 at St Pancras Parish Church Crypt, Euston as part of Cryptic 2017 – Art and Science

Thanks to: Dr Stephanie Wright, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, Kings College London; The Arctic Circle Residency Autumn 2017 – Alexis Rider, Amelie Laurence Fortin, Annique Goldenberg, Ashleigh Goh Hua, Alan Campbell, Brandon Holmes, Caroline Landau, Chelsey Flood, Chih-Chung Chang, Claire Dibble, Caroline Hinkley, Debbie Lee, Devra Freelander, Elzbieta Mrowiec, Emma Varga, Hannah Scott, Hildur Jónasson, Himali Singh Soin, Jana Maxová, Joachim Schiel, John Henry Blatter, Iveta Vaivode, Jillian McDonald, Julie Kusyk, Kazuko Kizawa, Kristin Jaeger Wexsahl, Laura Noel, Monika Hiller, Mario Czok, Marte Agneberg Dahl, Michael Wallace, Mita Mahato, Nanou Blair Gould, Nemo, Nung-Hsin Hu, Pete Froslie, Piet Boorsma, Ren Zi, Sally Hovelso, Sarah Gerats, Sascha Hühn, Sheng-Wen Lo, Veronika Baresova.