Ambergris: A visual representation on how whales are affected by human pollution and how it has taken a toll on the ocean's aquatic animals.

Rosas Brief:

This project raises awareness of the growing amount of plastic in oceans. A sperm whale made from plastic, emphasizing the effect of human pollution on marine wildlife. In fact, due to human negligence, over 1 million birds and 100,000 marine mammals are being killed due to our consumption of plastic. One of the animals that plastic is most deadly too are whales. That is why we decided to create an installation that ties plastic and whales into one. This project includes a filtration mask which represents how it's almost impossible to live in an ocean made of plastic. The style of the mask resembles a pollution mask similar to one that people wear in cities with poor air quality. In addition, the installation will include plastic spouting from the whales blowhole to show how much plastic whales ingest. Overall, the goal for this project is to educate people on how deadly plastic really is while simultaneously helping people take a stand against plastic pollution in our oceans.   

Henrys Brief:

In order to raise awareness of the issue of plastics flowing into the oceans and the threat they pose to wildlife, this project dedicates itself to a species endangered by human waste. Ambergris is a sculpture of a sperm whale consisting of plastic and other materials protruding from a wall towards the viewer. The whale will be wearing a pollution mask based off of the designs of pollution masks common in urban areas throughout the world.

Several million tons of debris end up in the world’s oceans every year, and much of it is improperly discarded plastic litter. The advent of microplastics --plastics less than five millimeters in diameter-- from cosmetic products and the breaking down of larger plastics have become an even more difficult and prevalent issue for our oceans. Ambergris seeks to raise awareness of these plastic issues by confronting the American consumer with a mammalian victim of society’s consumption humanized through self preservation.

The sculpture is mounted to a wall.   The sculpture is designed to confront the audience head-on through its extruding proportions. The intrusive nature of the whale through the surface it is mounted on is designed to represent the intrusive nature of the issue on the worldwide health of sea life.