Manveer Singh’s friends and neighbors thought it was strange when he asked for their household plastic rubbish. When he informed them it was to beautify their rubbish by creating art installations, they were perplexed, but they consented. After a few days, he gave them boxes to collect the plastic debris, which he would do every 15 days.
What began in 2018 was an odd plea to raise awareness about plastic pollution in Delhi. Which also happens to have a garbage mountain (Ghazipur), which has now evolved into full-fledged artwork installations. His work is there in museums, galleries, and art fairs, among other venues.
Manveer, a professional artist and instructor, uses plastic in the same manner as a painter employs paint.
Art as his profession and Nature as his inspiration
“I began my artistic path by taking inspiration from nature via landscape paintings. But I quickly realized that my paintings were only benefiting me. And the customer I wished to accomplish more I didn’t want nature to be merely a subject for me anymore. After doing some investigation, I discovered that farmers are discovering layers of plastic instead of water while excavating their wells. In recent years, I am focusing my life and work is focusing on how the Earth is evolving into a plastic world said Manveer.
So far, he has worked with 25 families to remove 250 kilograms of single-use plastic products from landfills, such as wrappers, bags, and covers. He has completed around 11 artworks utilizing various bases such as board, tapestry, metal, mirror, and so on, each of which took an average of 2-3 months to complete.
I keep all of the artwork with me after presenting it in my studio, Manveer continues. Since all of the materials will take hundreds of years to degrade.
Manveer painstakingly crafts a narrative behind each of his works. Depicting the reality of plastic consumption behavior. And the magnitude of damage done to the globe by a single plastic piece.
“I’m on a mission to persuade people to minimize their usage of single-use plastic and to practice trash segregation so that plastic may be recycled.” For example, my Futuristic Earth Core sculpture reflects our planet’s future. It is an inverted pyramid that depicts the earth’s strata. We shall have one layer of plastic on top of the dirt and minerals. The uppermost layer, the earth, is fracturing as well as symbolizing drought. Because of plastic garbage, water will not trickle underground,” adds Manveer.