Using beauty to shock, artist pairs rubbish picked from beaches with lookalikes from nature to send a message about consumer culture

‘I started noticing two items with the same shape, surface texture and buoyancy, yet they couldn’t be more different,’ says artist Liina Klauss

Her show Involuntary Pairs, at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, pairs found objects from beaches with an item from nature to question our consumerism

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Hong Kong-based artist and activist Liina Klauss. Photo: courtesy Liina Klauss

Published: 2:57pm, 4 Jan 2021Updated: 2:57pm, 4 Jan 2021

Artist Liina Klauss is known for raising awareness about the devastating impact human actions have on the environment, in particular marine pollution. In 2018, she caught the public’s attention with a large-scale, rainbow-like installation in Bali, Indonesia – where she lives when she is not on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island – constructed from more than 5,000 plastic flip-flops.

The discarded footwear had been collected in six visits to the shores of the Indonesian island’s west coast.

For her latest exhibition, “Involuntary Pairs”, at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum in Central, Klauss again focuses on the sad state of our oceans. The museum is temporarily closed in light of recent social-distancing measures introduced to fight Covid-19, but there is a video preview that gives viewers a good idea of Klauss’ “pairs” and the important message behind them.

The exhibition features pieces of man-made debris collected from Hong Kong beaches since 2013, each shown beside a lookalike object from nature. For example, the plastic sole of a shoe bears a remarkably close resemblance to the cuttlebone it is paired with, as does a piece of nylon rope to a clump of seaweed, and a cigarette butt to a piece of coral. The fusion, requiring a double take, is both impressive and depressing.

“Shoe sole – cuttlebone”, part of the Involuntary Pairs exhibition by artist Liina Klauss. Photo: courtesy Liina Klauss

“I started noticing two items with the same shape, surface texture and buoyancy, yet they couldn’t be more different: one originates from human manufacturing, the other one from nature,” says Klauss. Hong Kong-based Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden and the Swire Institute of Marine Science helped identify the specimens from nature used in the exhibition.

Of the pieces of debris featured, Klauss says: “They look innocent on the beach but have a devastating impact, not just on marine creatures that mistake these man-made objects for food but also … when they break down on a micro level.”