Bringing an idea to life takes innovation, passion and a whole lot of patience. What's more powerful is if the creation brings people to another world for just a moment and sparks a new notion in the viewers. None other than Benjamin Von Wong is doing it as we speak. The Canadian-born artist is a big advocate for Ocean Plastics and has been creating art pieces to bring awareness to the most critical issue faced today — Pollution. Known for his environmental art installations and hyper-realist art style, he recently launched a new campaign, Turn Off The Plastic Tap. Jejune got the opportunity to converse with Von Wong to learn more about his creative endeavors and mission to make positive impacts unforgettable.

As an artist promulgating for the environment, Benjamin has been continuously pushing his own boundaries to bring a creative twist to the lackadaisical attention of plastic pollution in his artworks. After a long-awaited few months since our first point of contact, Benjamin launched a thought-provoking yet mesmerizing art campaign, Turn Off The Plastic Tap. Benjamin tells us: “A common phrase in the plastics world says that we must Turn Off The Plastic Tap. They mean that we need to go straight to the source and start restricting plastic production rather than focus our attention downstream on recycling and cleanups. My goal was to create a visual symbol for that phrase. So why NOT make a giant levitating faucet to highlight the issue?”

The installation is of a giant levitating tap expelling out 30 feet of plastic. Benjamin explained, “I think the levitating faucet adds a touch of magic, wonder and curiosity to an otherwise very serious and sad topic.” Turn Off The Plastic Tap shows all telltale signs of Benjamin's passion and earnest plea to save the environment. Every element embodies the spirit of reuse, from creating the giant faucet from scavenged pieces of ventilation ducts to threading plastics together using ropes made from used plastic bottles.

In juxtaposition to his previous work on raising awareness for individual objects, this campaign takes on a new approach by targeting the root cause of the problem — Plastic Production. Since the pandemic, single-use plastic consumption has gone up by 250-300%. He hopes the installation will give rise to a start of something new by pressuring world leaders to discuss and devise a global plastic treaty in the next United Nations Environmental Assembly happening in February 2022. “It just launched! The goal is for it to spark conversation and trigger action!”

Interestingly, Benjamin started out as an engineer before pursuing a career in the arts. The dexterous artist worked mainly on fantasy artwork for the earlier half of his career before finding his voice. “In 2016, I decided to do work that had more meaning and purpose behind it. I started watching different documentaries and slowly started experimenting with other concepts. The more I learned about environmental issues, the more involved I became. Eventually, I started combining the fantasy world with the sustainability world, and voila!”

Behind all the enthralling artwork, every piece is laced with his assiduousness. Each idea brought to life was from a thoughtful and meticulous creative process. “I think of myself as a designer. I spend a lot of time understanding the problem, seeing what hasn't been done, and trying to make the art I create as relevant as possible. The inspiration comes from having long conversations with people that are trying to solve the problem.”

Turn Off The Plastic Tap is not the first time Von Wong used plastic to create his art pieces. Pre Covid-19, Benjamin did another captivating composition, Plastikophobia, in Singapore to raise awareness on the detrimental effects of plastic takeaway cups used in food centres across the world. For this artistic production, he created an 'Instagrammable trap' made solely from plastic cups collected from local food centres. He shared that a challenging part was making the concept bring ‘horror’ and had even considered reconstructing the entire installation at one point for being 'too pretty’. He explained, “For Plastikophobia we had come up with the name that had the word "phobia" in it. In my mind, it felt like it should be more horror than beauty - but ultimately I think that when you pay close attention to what the material is it has the same effect - so we ended up keeping it the same.”

All in all, the Canadian artist has used over 168,000 plastic straws, 18,000 plastic cups and 10,000 plastic bottles for his art pieces. Believe it or not, he holds the Guinness World Record for the largest supported art installation made from plastic drinking straws with his Strawpocalypse project. When we asked him about the lifecycle of the plastics used in his work, he said, “Every project is different. Sometimes we collect the plastics off the streets. Other times we collect them from recycling centres. At the end of each project, we try to get it to tour or be adopted into a forever home. When that isn't possible, it gets recycled or disposed of in the best possible way based on where it happens to be located.”

Plastikophobia. Courtesy of Benjamin Von Wong

Outside of making galvanizing art installations, Benjamin made use of his talents further on philanthropic projects where he created a video for a GoFundMe page to help fund a cure for Eliza O’Neill and thousands of children suffering from a complex degenerative brain, known as Sanfilippo syndrome. “I flew myself over, stayed on their couch for a week and ended up making a video that raised a million dollars in a month, 2 million dollars by the end of the year. In the end, Eliza was the first child to be treated with the experimental drug.”

His forte in making viral content attracted more people to seek his help. With the hopes to help more Eliza O'Neills around the world, he revealed his recipes for fundraising success on his website. Benjamin opened up further, “I think storytelling is one piece of the puzzle — but you also need the other half, the operations. A person or organization on the other end knows what to do with the story. I think too often we spend our time looking for a silver bullet, but really what we need is an entire ecosystem of solutions!”

Benjamin taught us that it is not too late to start even if you have not found your calling, just as it is still not too late to come together and save Planet Earth. He taught us that we can create a positive impact with our own hands at any moment, just as we can start now by helping Benjamin spread awareness of the #TurnOffThePlasticTap campaign. And if you are in Paris, check out the installation live at the Centre Culturel Canadien from now until November 19th 2021. Take action and make unforgettable positive impacts together!

To keep up with Benjamin Von Wong and his artwork, please follow him via the below platforms:
www.giantplastictap.com
https://www.vonwong.com/
Instagram - @vonwong

The Fantastical Mind of Benjamin Von Wong