Art installation with a conservation message grows at Ocean Alliance

Ocean Alliance continues its support of the arts and the intersection of art and science by hosting the work of the first recipient of the Goetemann Artist Residency, Nathan Wilson Thomas. Nathan is constructing an installation onsite at Ocean Alliance. The photo above shows the installation soon after Nathan started construction.
Here is his statement about the project:
As a guest of The Goetemann Artist Residency and its first Fellowship Award recipient, I will be construction my installation, The Great Auk, from materials found on the grounds of Ocean Alliance and along the beaches of Cape Ann. Using this “trash” in my project will serve a number of purposes: I hope that it brings greater awareness of the vast amounts of trash and pollutants in our ocean that go un seen by most people; that it encourages people to consider reusing their waste products in both creative and utilitarian ways; that it motivates people to collect and properly dispose of trash whenever they see it; and, ideally, that it spurs political protections that will only come from pressure exerted by a vocal and informed population.
The Great Auk is a case study in the extinction of a species that humans saw coming for a very long time. The story of the Auk exemplifies the shortcomings of environmental protections that failed to go far enough to effectively alter the tide of human destruction.
This is still true of many of our environmental protection laws. It is for this reason that I have chosen the Great Auk as the subject of my installation on the grounds of Ocean Alliance. The mission of Ocean Alliance is to preserve the ocean environment, monitor threats to marine species, and to educate the public on these findings. Today’s threat to our aquatic species, our oceans, and the entire planet is pollution.