Gapado AiR Residency Air Talk and Workshop, 2022
During his residency in South Korea, Andy worked with a community of beach cleaners (ploggers) from Jeju Island called Plastic Free Jeju. This group is made up of islanders who meet regularly to carry out events, talks and beach cleaning. He asked their Founder, Kyeong, to tell him a little about their work and history to date.
'Look closer, there is a lot of garbage. The black rocks on the volcanic island of Jeju are full of waste. I set up Plastic Free Jeju to take action with citizen support. We hope to change mindsets here on the island. Although Jeju is famous for its drinking water, the consumption of bottled water by local residents is increasing. The garbage problem caused by this is very serious. Plastic bottled water is one of the most common types of garbage found in roadside bushes and beaches.
'Our group Plastic Free Jeju started in 2019. We pick up trash with the citizens and try our best to spread the Plastic Free Jeju campaign. Now, every weekend, we organize beach cleaning and urban plogging. Children participate in the plogging activities together, and together we perform our Plastic Free Jeju campaign song with them. I think picking up trash is important, but a lifestyle that doesn’t throw out trash is even more important. To do that, we need changes in our lives. I want Plastic Free Jeju to be a campaign that talks about life changes required for a sustainable global environment and leads our actions. I want to make a positive impact on citizens, and government agencies, and help support others spread the word here in South Korea'.
Kyeong ah, Founder of Plastic Free Jeju
Coastscape Workshop Gapado Village Hall, South Korea, 2022
Coinciding with his artist-in-residence exhibition at Gapado AiR, Andy Hughes integrated a ‘Making a Coastscape’ workshop event with invited guests including young people from Jeju province in South Korea. Making a Coastscape is a visual method workshop he co-created with partners whilst working on the project Coral Communities. The method enables facilitators to elicit resilience data from ocean communities. To frame the workshop and introduce his own work, Hughes' explained his long-standing fascination with plastic pollution, the beach and arts activism.
He also discussed a number of his projects: from the discovery of floating debris as a young surfer in the 90’s to his expedition in Alaska and more recently, exploratory work made whilst living on Gapado Island for six months. After the talk, all the attendees left the building to gather materials from waste washed ashore on the remote volcanic island. On their return, they all placed various objects in the large aquarium sited in the main exhibition room.
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