Events

Douglas Coupland Brings Art Exhibit to Vancouver Aquarium This Spring

By Jessica Palacio / February 6, 2018

Coupland’s major exhibit will highlight the ways plastic impacts our oceans.

Once described by The Telegraph as “one of the greatest satirists of consumerism,” internationally-renowned author, designer and artist Douglas Coupland is launching an exhibition with Ocean Wise, a global conservation organization, at the Vancouver Aquarium this May. Artist Douglas Coupland (Ocean Wise) Artist Douglas Coupland (Ocean Wise)Coupland has been visiting Haida Gwaii, an archipelago of B.C.’s west coast, for years. After the 2013 Japanese tsunami and earthquake, he noticed that once pristine shores of these islands became increasingly littered with plastic items of the sort that he once bought while living in Tokyo.The debris inspired his installation Vortex, a creative reimagining of “The Pacific Trash Vortex,” a spiral of marine debris discovered in the central North Pacific Ocean in 1985. In addition to the sculpture, the exhibit features a colourful array of ocean plastics collected along the British Columbia coastline by Coupland himself and collaborating cleanup organizations. Throughout the gallery, visitors will also have interactive experiences that detail how plastics impact our marine life and how forward-looking solutions will help us create more sustainable oceans.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCr6vl2K_a0