Installation by Monique Martin

In this striking new work, artist Monique Martin brings the distant reality of ocean plastic pollution into immediate, tangible focus. Suspended from the large windows overlooking the Saskatchewan River, 100 sheer cloth panels—each one a unique silkscreened monoprint—will catch the light and cast shadows of waste onto the surrounding space. Measuring 72 by 36 inches each and printed with haunting images of plastic debris, the panels form a symbolic representation of the Pacific Garbage Patch.

By transforming the windows into a floating field of translucent waste, the installation invites viewers to see ocean plastics not as a faraway issue, but as something present and urgent. The illusion of debris drifting in the air becomes a powerful metaphor for how global problems—especially environmental ones—are interconnected, and how our everyday actions ripple outward.

“I want people to see plastic differently,” says Martin. “This problem can feel distant, but it touches all of us. My hope is that through this installation, people will come away changed.”