Back in 2020 when we were working on the Plastic-free Biennale project for NIRIN, a group of us met with Rebecca Prince Ruiz, the founder of Plastic Free July®.
Amber Jones made a podcast from that conversation, which you can listen to here.
We’ve stayed in touch with Rebecca, and she has kindly recorded a message for us to play at the launch of our Plastic-free Kandos exhibition at WAYOUT Artspace on 11 June 2022.
You can listen to Rebecca’s short and inspiring message here:
…and below is a transcription of the text from that message:
Hello it’s Rebecca Prince-Ruiz here from Plastic Free July®.
I’m really delighted to welcome everyone to the launch of the Plastic-free Kandos exhibition.
It could not be more timely to bring people together, to grapple with this issue of how we can best manage the problem of plastics in our everyday lives.
This is a truly current pandemic.
We know that plastics have been found everywhere in the environment from the deepest ocean trenches to the top of the mountains, it’s harming our wildlife, it’s in our bodies.
It is everywhere.
This exhibition is an opportunity to share your plastic stories and reconsider your own relationship to plastics.
Plastic-free July® is coming up and it’s a great time to look at the plastic in your life and think about the choices that you can make to do things differently.
Earlier this year the United Nations Environment Assembly Member States unanimously agreed to create a historic global treaty to end plastic pollution.
On these complex environmental issues we need to think globally and act locally.
Please enjoy this exhibition and take a moment to consider the work of these incredible artists challenging us to rethink what we do and how we can make a difference.
Thank you.
Rebecca Prince-Ruiz (founder of the Plastic Free Foundation)
Plastic Free July®