Plastics+Art

Fact Sheet

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WHO
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) has commissioned Artist-in-Residence, Noel Harding, to create a public work of art that brings together the plastics and art communities. Harding is an international artist. His work can be found in numerous collections, including: The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; The Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels; and The Hara Museum, Tokyo.

WHAT
Noel Harding's artwork, called "the Elevated Wetlands," is a plastic-based, functioning, ecological sculpture. It is the first of five projects by five internationally acclaimed artists, 'under CPIAs Plastics + Art initative. In each case, the artist is free to establish the budget, the design and the execution of the work, from choosing the site to overseeing the construction. Solar-run pumps draw water from the polluted Don River into the ponds below the six raised plastic "planters." The water is pumped from the ponds to three of the planters where it flows into the others. The structures use a recycled plastic "soil substitute" to promote vegetative growth that isolates and retrieves wastes, toxins and other impurities from the water.

WHERE
"the Elevated Wetlands" is located right beside the Don Valley Parkway, one of Toronto's busiest highways next to the Don Mills Road exit and the Don River.

WHEN
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association first commissioned Noel Harding in July 1995. The model for "the Elevated Wetlands" was constructed in Lethbridge, Alberta, in the summer of 1996. The project was inaugurated on October 1, 1998 and is operational with three containers installed on the west side of the Don Valley Parkway and three installed on the east side. Other Plastics + Art initiatives are slated for Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax over the coming years.

WHY
The 'Plastics + Art' initiative addresses two primary issues. The most important of these is to inform the public of the usefulness, resourcefulness and aesthetic appeal of recycled plastics. In addition, the 'Plastics + Art' initiative brings together, for the first time, the two very separate worlds of art and the plastics industry. Harding's project "the Elevated Wetlands" is a unique public work that will serve as a model toward corporate-sponsored art projects and public art placements initiated co-operatively with communities and regions across Canada.