The humans who are incessantly littering and throwing away their plastic bottles at the beach obviously don’t want marine species to perish or the ocean to overflow into the city, but they litter unconsciously because they simply ‘can’ do so. The artist attempts to confront this collective unconscious practice by directly addressing the treatment of trash, urging individuals to take a moment to consider this deadly action.Â
Amongst the many other alarming issues regarding environmental degradation and climate change like the ice melting in the poles, the extinction and endangerment of numerous species, and the loss of indigenous lands and many other areas, the artist Plasticvalla chooses to focus on human behavior regarding consuming materials, precisely how we use and throw but don’t think.Â
In his art practice, with a focus on hard-to-recycle MLP, Manveer aka Plasticvalla uses discarded plastic waste. Now, working with more than 200 families in Delhi he is collecting more than 50 kgs of plastic waste door-to-door through his self-devised Habit Changer Box, doing segregation at source and then upcycling them while turning them into big-scale, conceptual and impactful sculptures or installation works and many others small to large, painterly and interactive works- Plasticvalla’s ‘Art for Nature’.
Apart from upcycling huge amounts of plastic through his works, the artist is involving the community on a broader level through interaction, making them learn how to turn plastic waste into artworks, conducting workshops and learning sessions in schools and other community areas.  Â
This article focuses on the various depictions of endangered species by the artist across the world so far. The depiction of endangered species in the relevant areas by the artist is not merely for the visual quality but to direct the audience to reflect in a particularly evolved way on their own lives.
Last year in August, the artist was selected for the Metis residency program in Togo, Africa, and spent his residency days at Lome, Togo. While working with the locals and students and demonstrating several practical ways to tackle waste management, Plasticvalla in collaboration with the team, created a large-scale series of installations of Zebras. The life-sized zebras were created out of upcycling plastic bottles and other MLP. Highlighting the plight of migrant animals, the artist presents an ironic plastic visual of the animal, rapidly reducing in numbers and vehemently searching for homes in this time of rapid deforestation and urban development, causing them to lose their natural habitat.
In 2021, Plasticvalla was the grant winner of ‘Metis initiative on Plastics and Indo-Pacific Ocean’ supported by AFD France and Utsha Foundation. Plasticvalla created a temporary installation of a large-scale (15 x 15 ft) Olive Ridley turtle composed of more than 280 small turtles, for public display on Puri beach. The turtles were created out of MLP plastic and the artist highlighted the plastic littering at the beach which causes a decreasing number of turtle nesting and habitats. The work echoed the ethos of the work by turtle man Rabindranath Sahu, known for his extensive works about saving the olive ridley turtles at Rushikulya beach, Odisha.
While reflecting on the touristy behavior of people of not taking care of the waste and trash while traveling, one of the recent endeavors of the artist, he created a permanent outdoor installation in a challenging location like the uphill Himalayas. The mountains and so-called ‘natural’ tourist places are rapidly transforming because of ‘development’ and so is the nature of the landscape. The greenery, water, and roads are filled with a rainbow of plastic waste in different forms.Â
The kinetic installation at Bir Billing depicts a Himalayan Griffon Vulture, native to the Himalayas, now little seen because of the changing landscape and careless urban invasion. Multiple layers of MLP with upcycled PET bottles, and other kinds of plastic waste were used to realize this large-scale installation of the Himalayan Griffon Vulture.
One of the other important works by Plasticvalla is at the Jim Corbett National Park where he created the ‘Tiger Family’, as a permanent upcycled installation made out of plastic. The artist found the inspiration at the Corbett Museum where the extensive history of the tigers in the forest is documented meticulously and he could map the currently degraded condition of the tiger populace in India. In today’s time, wild animals may not be hunted, but they are in the process of being slowly killed by us, through the way we treat our planet and environment. Enormous plastic waste in the forests causes the animals to lose their habitat and food, and this plastic earth is now a dangerous killing machine for them. The artist states that rather than unconsciously weaponizing our plastic, we should be mindful of our consumption and waste management as a starter and then go on recycling, upcycling, and creating a broader empathetic community based on sustainable values. This work was done in collaboration with Waste Warriors and enabled by Royal Enfield.
The journey of working on the series regarding endangered species started at another challenging location at Spiti Valley when the terrible state of a concerning place compelled the artist to act on it and set a permanent marker of action. The work poses a simple question- when all the snow melts, where will the snow leopard go? Done with an inclusive community effort, the work was done in collaboration with Desee Art and Ilahi Travels. After two years, the work is standing strong, and as per local reports, plastic littering has been completely stopped in that specific location.
It’s an observation that these large-scale installations created out of plastic waste serve as a symbolic marker of change, helping the viewers to reflect on their fatalistic behavior and adapt sustainable ways. The artist looks forward to a plastic-free future, urges the new generation to learn to tackle their trash, and be mindful, and suggests real-world artistic solutions. Plasticvalla urges us to ask the right questions for a better, sustainable, collective future .
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If you are interested in knowing more about Metis’s Residency Programme, visit here.
