Towering Waterfall Made From Recycled Plastic Highlights Water Pollution

Canadian installation artist <a href="http://www.katharineharvey.com/" target="_blank">Katherine Harvey</a> believes that water has the power to nourish and restore us, but it becomes blighted when garbage and plastic are dumped into the world's rivers and oceans. Her most recent installations have focussed on the glut of <a href="http://inhabitat.com/american-samoa-becomes-first-u-s-territory-to-ban-plastic-bags/">plastic waste</a> and its impact on the world's community, and her most recent project is the stunning <em>Horseshoe Waterfall</em> at the Bay Adelaide Centre, Toronto. Harvey's fluid waterfall is made completely from found plastic objects assembled into a towering form that fills passerby with a renewed sense of wonder.

<em>Horseshoe Waterfall</em> was on display for three weeks in April at the Bay Adelaide Centre in Toronto.

Commissioned by <em>Brookfield Properties Ltd.</em>, the large waterfall measures 19 x 18 x 17 feet and makes use of 1,000 cubic feet (28.3 cubic m) of discarded plastic strung together using monofilament.

The translucent <a href="http://inhabitat.com/intricate-hand-folded-sculptures-made-from-old-tea-bag-wrappers/" target="_blank">sculpture</a> is highlighted with small bits of blue and green colored <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/plastic">plastic</a>, giving the work a watery hue.

Fluid and formally ambiguous, the horseshoe is like a cascading wall of water.

“Water is an ambiguous element constantly morphing into myriad forms both continuous and transparent. My installations evoke both states of calm and calamity by portraying water’s power to at once nourish and annihilate, soothe and suffocate,” explains Harvey.

“My site-specific installations transform cheap detritus into a water-like substance, infusing banal objects with seemingly magical powers capable of filling us with a renewed sense of wonder.”

Plastic garbage, Havery says, "<a href="http://inhabitat.com/plastiki-successfully-crosses-the-pacific-lands-in-australia/">highlights the glut of plastic waste</a> in our consumerist society and its serious long-term impact on our global community."

Her work is meant to remind us of the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/another-giant-garbage-patch-found-in-the-atlantic-ocean/">huge floating islands of trash in our oceans</a>.

We are reminded of the vast island that has formed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean consisting of plastic refuse brought together by oceanic currents.”

Final details are added to the recycled plastic installation.

The completed installation.

<em>Horseshoe Waterfall</em> as seen from outside the center.

The bits of blue and green plastic add to the watery effect.