“Skyscraper” – The Bruges Whale arrives at Singapore

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“SKYSCRAPER” – THE BRUGES WHALE, ARRIVES AT ARTSCIENCE MUSEUM IN SINGAPORE AS FIRST STOP OF ITS INAUGURAL ASIA PACIFIC TOUR

11 metres tall and made from recycled plastic, the installation is a stark reminder of the amount of plastic waste in the ocean

 

SCN is proud to be a part of this project, to raise awareness of the network and the wider public, of the problem of plastic in the ocean.

We would like to give special thanks to BSV Shipping agencies and Silk Express in Singapore for helping to make this all possible.

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Singapore, 7th  November 2019 – “Skyscraper”- The Bruges Whale, “Have We Breached the Limit?” sculpture is a 11-meters tall sculpture made from recycled ocean plastic which was officially unveiled at ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands today, the first stop of its inaugural Asia Pacific tour.

Designed by award-winning architects and designers Jason Klimoski and Lesley Chang from the acclaimed StudioKCA in New York, the piece is an interpretation of the theme “liquid city” for the 2018 Bruges Triennial. Inspired by the biggest liquid city on the planet – the ocean, they collected as much plastic from the seas over four months to form the basis of the sculpture.

Brought to Asia by the NGO, Ocean Recovery Alliance, StudioKCA’s sculpture comes from work with with the Hawaii Wildlife Fund which collected all of the plastic used in Skyscraper over a period of four months. After sorting the plastic by size and colour, as well as working on the engineering of the internal steel structure, the firm ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for the fabrication and shipping of the enormous installation.

The plastic waste used to construct the sculpture – ranging from hangers and kitchen bowls to toilet seats and car bumpers – was amongst 5 tonnes of waste pulled from the Pacific Ocean in 2019. Shaped into the iconic Skyscraper – The Bruges Whale, it now serves as a stark visual reminder of the 150 million tonnes of plastic polluting our waters. With an estimated 8 million tonnes added every year, pound for pound, there is more plastic waste in the ocean than there are whales.

“A whale, breaching from the water, is the first ‘skyscraper of the sea’, and as the largest mammal in the water, it felt like the right form for our piece to take in order to show the scope and scale of the problem,” said Jason Klimoski, STUDIOKCA.

Skyscraper, installed in the canal at Jan Van Eyck Plein, was the centrepiece of the 2018 Bruges Triennial and visited by over 380,000 people who took and shared over 2 million images of the installation on social media. It then moved to Utrecht in the Netherlands in 2019, to be part of a nearly yearlong campaign by Utrecht University and the City of Utrecht to educate citizens about plastic waste and its effects on marine life. Skyscraper is a physical example of why we need to change how we use and dispose of plastic in the world today”, said Lesley Chang, STUDIOKCA

Ocean Recovery Alliance focuses on creative solutions, innovations, building awareness, and education to reduce plastic pollution, and works globally to spread this message. It has partnered with StudioKCA to bring the Skyscraper to the shores of Asia, with one of the first public art exhibits with a cause and a message behind it, which will link much of Asia together via this iconic tour.

“Ocean Recovery Alliance has always been committed to creating strategic, long-term solutions to reduce plastic pollution on land and water,” said Douglas Woodring, Founder and Managing Director, Ocean Recovery Alliance. “It is a wonderful opportunity to be able to bring Skyscraper to different communities and countries and use it to raise awareness around this pressing issue. We are excited for the positive impact we are sure this will have on society at large.”  The exhibit supported by the ArtsScience Museum, as well as Kuehne & Nagel which helped to ship the whale from Europe to Asia, and Security Cargo Network for the freight forwarding and logistics.

“ArtScience Museum is delighted with the reception we received for our recent Season of Sustainability – Climate S.O.S, which shone a spotlight on the urgency to protect our marine ecosystems. We are pleased that Skyscraper is now making its Asia Pacific debut right here at ArtScience Museum, as a continuation of the Season. This impressive public art installation vividly conveys the scale of plastic pollution in our ocean. It amplifies awareness of how vulnerable marine species like whales are, and why we must take action to address plastic pollution in the ocean, now” said Honor Harger, Executive Director, ArtScience Museum.

Skyscraper (The Bruges Whale) – Have we breached the limit” is a free public installation and will be on display outside ArtScience Museum from 6 November 2019 until 19 December 2019.

Hi-res images can be found here and the video behind Skyscraper’s inception and installation in Bruges can be found here.

 

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