This giant whale, known to her friends as Skyscraper, has travelled all the way from Hawaii to the Catharijnesingel canal in Utrecht in the Netherlands.
This eleven metre tall whale is made of five tons of litter that used to pollute the ocean around Hawaii. Bowls, dustpans, bins, milk bottles, laundry baskets, colanders, wellies, and even a drum kit, have united to form a young whale who can now teach us to reduce litter, to use less plastic and to work out how to make our rivers and seas survive.
Whilst the plastic used to create this statue was dredged mainly from Hawaii, with some coming from New York state, the people handling it were able to see that much of it came from further afield, having bobbed its way across the oceans from cities around the world.
After an initial appearance in Bruges, Skyscraper arrived in Utrecht in December 2018, performing an official unveiling on 17 January 2019. It will stay here in the Catharijnesingel for around 6 months, before heading on to Paris and then on to a number of other cities.
To see more about the making of this whale, watch this short clip on Youtube;
Copyright Debbie Smyth, 31 January 2019
Posted as part of Lens-Artists
Travel with Intent 
Litter to very good use…
LikeLike
I saw the whale in Bruges (August 2018). Took photos (of course!) but haven’t posted them.
LikeLike
That is so very sad and, hopefully very effective
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope so!
LikeLike
it really is sobering to see this (and let’s reduce and reuse)
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a fabulous use of throw away crap. Glad you got in close for some of the detail Debbie 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Amazing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow…well, they used the rubbish for a good thing too. Hopefully many people will be as shocked as possible!
LikeLiked by 3 people
What an interesting sculpture!
LikeLiked by 1 person
quite remarkable
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wish I could applaud the rubbish to art – but the fact that it easily makes a whale (and many many more whales) is no reason to applaud. It’s an indictment of humans.
LikeLiked by 4 people
It is indeed – it was belt to give us that message. And it is at least one method of reusing our waste
LikeLiked by 3 people
Very illustrative of human irresponsibility to the oceans
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s totally shocking the amount of plastic out there, Debs. Thanks for sharing this and the video. We try to pick up on the beaches but it’s just a drop in the ocean. Ha- not funny! 😦 He’s a lovely whale, though. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person