https://blog.vonwong.com/mermaidplastic
When first seeing the mermaid depicted in the center of the piece, along with it is a simultaneously visual ambiguity and a sense of wonder. On the one hand, the figure evokes ancient myth about a mermaid. But, the mermaid has also become lost in an artificial landscape made up of plastic bottles as waves, merging the mythical beauty of the ocean and the pollution that is inescapable today in the ocean. The details, colors and artistry invite viewers in closer, not only is there the twist of the deformed plastic, and glimmers of blue and green, the visual imaging creates a sea fantasy and displacement, however it is made of plastic. It raises the questions, is the mermaid only marooned in this landscape, or is it a challenge to the viewers ignorant, complacent body, and signifies the truth of ecological annihilation. The space itself, is a thoughtful, staged space distinct and separate from the public beach, or wild ocean landscape; it is distorted and blurs the lines of the beach, and open water, inviting all to remember pollution is not just a faraway, public issue, it arrives right into our most intimate, personal and private places. Looking Carefully at this image, we can see how the modern mermaid functions as a powerful icon for environmental crisis in the context of certain private spaces–both on land and in the sea that are also polluted. Yet, the polluted places can become a source of activism, change, and challenging the concept of a relationship to nature.
The mermaid depiction both subverts its viewers’ expectations, and employs the aesthetic language of the genre of myth in order to make an explicit commentary about our own complicity in environmental harm. By organizing the plastics so that it appears as though one is viewing the ocean, the artist not only presents the viewer with the staggering amount of waste, but intentionally makes the “waves” seem enticing – even beautiful – from a distance. Upon closer inspection, however, the truth is inescapable: this is not water, it is the pollution that threatens marine life. The mermaid’s iridescent tail, which was created to move gracefully in rhythm with the synthetic ‘waives’, serves as a visual focal point to describe nature’s relationship with the human world’s careless consumption. Instead of simple depicting the mermaid as another victim, her stance between the act of swimming and reaching conveys resistance and hope amidst peril.
In, Emelia Škarnulytė’s short film “Sirenomelia,” relates to the image because it serves as a call for reclamation. When a magic figure such as the mermaid occupies sites of conflict, whether a legacy of an active military base or garbage in a sea, she urges us to think about ways to engage in the traumatic past and creates possibilities for the future. The sea covered in plastic becomes not just a representation of our collective, failure, but an invitation to find energy and material for activism and creative revisioning. In both circumstances, as the mermaid rewrites the narrative of loss and hopelessness, she balances room to locate adaptation, resilience, and not simply belief, but opportunities for renewal even in the most abandoned and hurtful spaces.
The setting of the image is critical. The intimacy of an interior private space collapses the perceived distance between environmental destruction and “safe” culture (or consumer) space; it implicates everyone, including the viewer, into the environmental crisis. Unlike more public, environmental awareness campaigns the situate litter in remote parts of nature, the image insists that the living room, as a place and living routine, is both part of the problem and the solution. The mermaid, as an outsider and intermediary, produces a public witness to private waste. As an activist presence, the mermaid reframes individual responsibility to include activism that starts at home.
Further examination of the visual details reveals further depth. Even though the plastic bottles are commonplace, polluting out oceans, and responsible for much of the cultural mythology, they are all, in new formations, ordered in a particular fashion that creates an unsettling beauty. This is the same capacity of art itself– to display unsettling truths in a manner that can affect viewers emotionally and intellectually. The image of the mermaid uses that capacity to persuade viewers to explore how they relate to the environment and also how they relate to cultural mythology.
Additionally, mermaids have been a part of a larger trend in environmental activism. Recently, in contemporary art, and in activist campaigns, mermaids have made a comeback to link, especially, young audiences (visually or literally) to the ocean crisis regarding plastics debris, rising sea levels, and species at risk. So the image you share indicates a movement seeking to make myth a relevant and relatable vehicle for eco-centrism. The presenting of the mermaid in a polluted, restricted context emphasizes the nuance of the mermaid’s positioning, as she represents both disruption from human interaction and a motivation to address environmental injustice.
This piece not only laments a relationship lost with nature through these artistic decisions but also encourages viewers to re-conceptualize places that are polluted into sites of activism and change. The mermaid- a figure of both beauty and warning in mythology- becomes an advocate for change suggesting to viewers that they must act not only from a place of fear but also from a place of hope. When viewed from the perspective of myth, plastic pollution is daunting, yet feels less overwhelming. This myth becomes a call to action to reimagine the boundaries between destruction and renewal, especially in the private and daily spaces that we often overlook.
In summary, the contemporary mermaid, as seen in this image, goes beyond merely a passive symbol and instead compels engagement. By careful analysis of each formal and thematic element, we come to a reading in which the mermaid’s polluted, private environments can inspire activism and allow us to imaginatively re-create a different relationship to the environment. This reading turns the image into only a critique, but a call to action, and an argument that even the most polluted worlds can be a catalyst for change.