An international artist exhibits his latest work made from plastic waste collected in the Mediterranean in Antibes

It sits sheltered from the sun. And from prying eyes, it must be said. Since the end of June, a work by British artist James Shaw, made from plastic waste recovered from the Mediterranean Sea by the Polymer Collective and featuring the image of ancient amphorae, has been installed at the Cap d'Antibes Beach Hotel, in an outdoor corridor.

"Amphorae Stack" is therefore the result of a collaboration between the sculptor and designer, whose specialty is precisely to work from this plastic waste and whose works are notably exhibited in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V & A) in London, and the collective, whose action can be summed up as follows: "Our desire is to produce radical, innovative and poetic works of art from a raw material whose damage and uses we would like to limit" , we can read on their website.

James Shaw, for his part, takes a philosophical look at his work: "I've been working with the collective since 2021. The objects I create are very often made from recycled plastic. The idea is to melt this plastic recovered from the sea to make new objects and thus raise awareness. By working with them, I discovered that this marine waste had different characteristics from that collected on land. They sometimes come from the depths of the sea, with particular shapes and smells..."

"The connection was obvious to me."

Polymer operates in the south-east of France, particularly in Marseille. It was in Marseille that the British artist began collaborating with the collective. While wandering through the city's museums, he quickly made the connection between this waste and the ancient amphorae that can be seen there. Objects from another time, which were used to transport all sorts of foods, including oils. "They have a bit of that look, that of an object that has remained at the bottom of the sea for several centuries. From the start, the connection was obvious to me. Plastic comes from nothing other than petroleum, a natural oil, after all."

This is how he constructed his work. By bringing together the ancient and plastic, through a noble cause: the pollution of natural environments. "It's rich in meaning. It's an object that speaks to everyone and connects us to a civilization of the past but also to our future world, which we hope will be cleaner. The plastic waste that ends up in the sea generates a lot of problems. It's important to raise public awareness about this."