Huge Everyday Plastic photo unveiled at Dreamland

Everyday Plastic’ is a large-scale image by Daniel Webb and photographer Ollie Harrop

A giant billboard photograph showing a collection of plastic waste over one year has been unveiled at Dreamland.

Everyday Plastic’ is a large-scale image by Daniel Webb and photographer Ollie Harrop of Bon Volks studios in Margate.

Daniel collected the waste over 12 months and analysis revealed it consisted of around 4,500 pieces of plastic, of which 93% was single-use throwaway packaging.

Having laid out all of the plastic to the exact size of the billboard, the piece was photographed by Ollie using a 5m high by 6m wide rig and the items were captured at actual size. The final piece measures 13m wide by 4m tall, and such was the volume of plastic, it required 20 individual photos to be taken and then stitched together in post-production.

Daniel said: “After the initial announcement, we had such a great response to the project. Around 20 volunteers came in to help me count, categorise and weigh the whole collection, and it was fair to say we were all overwhelmed with the results of that. I obviously ate a lot of crisps and chocolate in 2017… The stats we’ve gathered are certainly going to shock a lot of people, but hopefully it’ll help them to understand how much throwaway plastic we use in our daily lives.

Daniel Webb Photo Ollie Harrop

“We can’t wait for people to see the image on display at Dreamland. It’s a colourful, abstract and beautiful representation of my life in 2017, yet it shows the extent of the problem of disposing of our plastic waste responsibly.”

Everyday Plastic is part of the Mural-by-the-Sea 12-month programme which commissions artists to produce bespoke works of art for a large-scale billboard mural at the amusement park which reopened for the season today (March 30).

Rebecca Ellis, Senior Creative Producer at Dreamland Margate, said: “’Everyday Plastic really is an incredible vision and we’re delighted that it is part of our Mural by the Sea project. As a cultural destination, it is of huge importance to us to be part of Margate’s creative community and to support artists, providing them with a platform. There’s so much going on at the park over Easter, so we really encourage people to come along and see the work!”

Everyday Plastic will be on display at Dreamland until May 21.

Entry to Dreamland starts from £5, redeemable against a ride or food.

Find plastic pollution facts for the UK here