River’s monsters turned into art

Trash from the Yarra has been morphed into an artwork thanks to a group of young Melburnians who meet and plan in Docklands every Tuesday night.

Rubbish was collected through a project run by the Melbourne City Rotaract Club, a team of young adults aged 18-30, in conjunction with the OceanX Group. The team runs a monthly Yarra River Clean Up event.

The rubbish was passed onto artist Mocha Li, who uses recycled or reused materials for oil painting and knits plastic yarns from deconstructed plastic water bottles.

The result is a mixed media piece inspired by the Great Barrier Reef. It intends to ask the viewer: in society today, can you still appreciate how beautiful nature is? Underneath a façade of natural colours sits the rubbish collected from the Yarra.

Ludovic Grosjean is a Rotaract member and principal consultant at OceanX Group – an engineering company tackling water pollution.

“As humanity is approaching a critical time, the painting is a reminder that we need to recognise the beauty in nature if we want to keep and preserve it,” he said.

“Otherwise, rubbish may block us from seeing our colourful environment. We can still rescue our oceans now, but people need to be aware of the urgency to act.”

The art was donated to the Rotary Club of Flemington art show to raise funds for community programs.

The next Yarra River Clean Up meets at Flinders Street Station at 9.45am on Sunday, November 17.

The Melbourne City Rotaract Club meets every Tuesday at 7pm at The Hub.

For more info contact Ludovic Grosjean at [email protected]