2000 lost soles

Happy World Oceans Day 2017!

2000 abandoned shoes were used to create this 'trash-land-art | 垃圾山水' installation within the past two days leading up to World Oceans Day with the help of an amazing team of friends and support from  PlasticFreeSeas , Ecomarine and  LivingLamma ! These shoes are all marine litter and were collected over the past months on three different beaches on Lantau, the biggest island of Hong Kong. The artist liina klauss creates these beautiful outdoor installations since 2011 as she says "making shit look good" to raise awareness for the pollution of our oceans. 

'2000 lost soles' at Tong Fuk pebble beach, South Lantau, HK

The installation is part of a larger project called '10.000 lost soles' (#10000lostsoles). liina asks schools, corporates and individuals to collect abandoned shoes on beaches, in country parks and in the city of Hong Kong itself until the number of 10.000 is reached. Then an even bigger outburst of colour is waiting to come alive! 

Keilem from Ecomarine helping to paint the blues

Dana and Julia from Plastic Free Seas adding last soles to '2000 lost soles'

HELP COLLECTING!

Collection points are on Lantau Island, Hong Kong:

- Lo Kei Wan Beach

- Tong Fok Pebble Beach

- Tai Long Wan Beach 

Or start your own collection point on a beach near you! If you are a teacher, an enthusiastic hiker, a nature lover or corporate and feel inspired to help, please contact any one of the NGOs: PlasticFreeSeas , Ecomarine,  LivingLamma or the artist directly.

Year 4 students from Rennaissance College in Hong Kong helping to sort the mess

"The heritage of pollution that we pass on to our children is traumatizing. My goal is to give children the possibility to work creatively in nature, seeing and grasping the impact of man-made pollution and finding a creative translation for this trauma with their own two hands. It is by no means the solution. But it is in its own a form of cure and a way to shift awareness."                      (liina klauss)

#10000lostses #lostsoles #flipflops #shoes #withyourowntwohands #curatingthebeach   #plastic #outofhands #marinepollution #marinelitter #marinedebris #plasticocean #pickitup #plasticpollution #pollutionhongkong #marinepollutionhongkong #pollution #awarenessactivismart #artactivism #awareness #consciousness #landart #1000lostsoles #liinaklauss #trashlandart #landart #activismhongkong #landarthongkong #垃圾山水

nothing is ever lost

I took this photo during the Umbrella Movement and I always felt it to be very special: students at the roots of a huge Banyan tree. For me it represents the strength and connectedness of these young people. I'm honoured to give a talk at "We Gain We Lose", a Multidisciplinary Art Festival, organized by students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, providing a platform for artists to express their current state of mind in response to the social changes happening in Hong Kong. 

More info on the arts festival here! 

Please register here for my talk 'nothing is ever lost'. The event is FREE and the documentary 'Landscape of Rubbish' by Taiwanese film-maker You-Xue Lin will be screened after my talk followed by public discussion. Very much looking forward to this sharing!

All this is happening at the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre 27/04 until 01/05

My talk is on 30/04 starting at 5pm

in-spired

the hongkong air is extremely polluted the past couple of days. my daughter has developed a slight form of asthma because of it. it makes me cry.
i see, smell, touch, taste, hear and feel the world around me. 

i am not happy for my children, for myself or for anyone, to breath in polluted air, to swim in an ocean of plastic, to walk on concreted soil. i am not happy to see the earth filled up with indigestible waste. i am not happy to feed my children toxic food. i am not happy to be part of the destruction. 

yet it is our choice. we made the choice to live this way.

we gave velocity & mobility priority over slowness and quiet. convenience over simplicity. cleanliness over soil and sweat. safety over adventure. concepts over spontaneity. 

we planed, designed, calculated, manufactured and created this future we're living in now.

it is still our choice, every single moment we have the choice.
a pilot friend of mine told me in his 15-years career he's seen beijing for the first time from above. literally. seen the city. for once there was no smog. the reason was 'golden week', a nation wide holiday when all factories are shut down for a continuous period of 7 days.
the change is always here and now! in fact it can only be here and now.

walk barefoot. drink from a mountain stream. eat fresh fruits from a tree. let nature feed you. close your eyes and look into the sun. see the colours. smell the grass. feel the wind.

blaming others is not the answer. blaming yourself is not the answer. both are destructive and wasting creative energy. 
i don't want to make a grouchy face like in this photo anymore !

we are capable of so much more.

we are and only we can be the solution.

anytime. 

any place. 

any person. 

all change starts within.

Installation & Workshop for Zero Waste Week

I've been keeping quiet about my installation 'the present' which will be  part of the first ever Zero Waste Week here in Hong Kong! All I can say about this art-installation is that it's shockingly plenti-and colourful! You have to see it with your own eyes:)

Zero Waste Week is organized by Ecozine and HKCleanup. It includes a Youth Conference from Monday-Wednesday, a summit on Thursday&Friday and a weekend open to the public with free workshops and a market themed all around sustainability and environmental awareness. Definitely more than one reason to head out to Cyberport! 

More info here: www.ecozine.com/article/zero-waste-global-summit

Please be invited to my workshop 'Tracing Waste' on Saturday 14.June from 11am-12:30pm as part of Zero Waste Week. Combining realistic drawing and creative writing this workshop answers the question so many of us ask upon seeing the amount of waste washed ashore in Hong Kong: "Why?" Like archeologists we will trace waste back to its origins: observing reality through life drawing, asking the right questions and writing a story combining the facts we gathered with fiction. The workshop is open to all ages (adults are welcome:) and you need to bring nothing but your openminded self! 

More photos of this workshop are here: http://wunderkinderhongkong.blogspot.hk/2015/03/be-true-detective.html?m=1

It was so inspiring to meet Paul Connett, the man on the forefront of the Zero Waste Movement. Thanks so much for coming to Hong Kong - your vision is needed here more than anywhere else!

More info on facebook.com/artofliinaklauss

two workshops for 'mother earth groove'

I'm happy to invite you to MOTHER EARTH GROOVE this SUNDAY 17th May at CHEUNG SHA BEACH from 2-6pm. I'll be giving two workshops: 'mind-your-head' and 'paints made from scratch - the radical self-reliant artist'. All proceeds will be going to the best charity in HongKong raising awareness, respect and gratitude for the natural world around us: ARCEDEN 

See you all on beautiful Cheung Sha Beach this coming Sunday:)

WASTE-TO-ART INSTALLATION

Date: Friday 31st Oct.   2-5pm

Location: Shui Hau beach, Lantau

Activity: Collecting colours/waste

liina klauss is supporting Plastic Free Seas' swim challenge with an art installation: liina will be painting a huge stream of colours made entirely from waste washed ashore. Please come and join: you can help collect colours of waste, coordinate the hues and shades or directly help laying out the art work. Because of the huge dimensions of the art work we will continue and complete the installation on Saturday 1st Nov. 

Date: Saturday 1st Nov.  9am-2pm

Location: Shui Hau beach, Lantau

Waste-to-Art Installation: 9am-12pm / Photo shoot: 12-1pm / Clean-up: 1-2pm

On Saturday we will complete the installation and take pictures: please help spread the pictures on social networks so as many people as possible will get in contact with this sad reality! On Shui Hau and many of Hong Kong's beaches, we need as many helping hands as possible to clean up.

Plastic Free Seas swim challenge will have Bruce Pye and his Coach Olivier Baillet swimming 75km around Lantau Island. On Saturday 1st, their fouth day swimming, they will arrive on Shui Hau beach. Don't miss it! 

More details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/454241448047059

Please bring:

- Proper shoes (no flip-flops)
- Drinking water (minimum 2-3l per person, there's no fresh water on the beach)
- Snacks
- Hat and sunscreen

- Disinfectant

Thanks so much for your support. 

It means the world to us.

Tracey & liina

<---  Painting a beautiful picture of an ugly truth! 

On that day we'll all be painters and we'll be creating a huge stream of colours to make everyone see this reality. Don't forget your camera!














Directions: 

From Mui Wo: Bus No.1 (to Tai O) or No.2 (to Ngong Ping). 

From Tung Cheung: Bus No.11 (to Tai O) or No.23 (to Ngong Ping). 

Tell the bus driver you want to get off at "Shui Hau Wan beach" or "kite-surfing beach" and follow the signs from there.

double-click map to enlarge

mind your head

'mind your head' is my workshop contribution to imagine peace festival 2014 on lantau island, hongkong. we let ourselves be inspired by the extravaganza of nature and create our own head-piece made from the beauty that surrounds us: lush leaves, green grass, fresh fruit and flowers. and off we go to find all of these adornments on our walk along the beach and through the beautiful wetlands of pui o. apart from natural objects we find bottle caps, fishing nets and a lot of broken down pieces of plastic. we take our findings and turn them into bouquets on each other's heads, just like children adorn each other. it is an act of giving and receiving. by adorning our heads with beauty of the natural world and the throw-aways of the human world, our heads are decorated on the outside. on the inside we start to think: why is there so much rubbish in nature? where does it come from? where does it go to? questions like children ask. honest questions hard to find a simple answer to. 

the process of adorning each other with the treasures of nature honors ourselves and is a deep prayer to the beauty of mother nature herself. let her be healed. and let us heal within her.

catch-of-the-day at PIF2014

"catch of the day" or "floating polke-dots" is part of pangkor island festival 2014 (PIF2014) bringing art, awareness and action to this small on the west coast of malaysia. the installation is made entirely from waste found on beaches of the island. the artist liina klauss is raising awareness for the problem of marine pollution. "most of the waste comes from residents themselves" liina says, "and this is not a problem that only exists on pangkor: this is a global problem and it has taken on horrifying proportions."

with the help of pangkor residents as well as volunteers from all over asia, liina has been cleaning-up beaches on the island to find materials needed for floating her installation. "we bought nothing to make the art piece" one of the volunteers says,"all is taken from the beach or borrowed by the neighbours!" the process of making art from nothing brings people into direct contact with pollution like marine debris. by collecting found materials, cleaning them, sorting them by colour and transforming them into an installation see, touch and experience a problem physically. as liina says: "what you touch, touches you", meaning that by physically helping to clean-up change is happening not only on the outside, but also on the inside. this said, the art-making process is an integral part of the installation and as important as the result itself. by integrating the local community the residents come in direct contact with the effects of their behaviour and the impact it has on nature, on wildlife and on the community. 

during an artist talk held during her one week stay on pangkor island, liina shared facts about marine pollution and her environmental activism, giving residents a chance to grasp the consequences and global dimensions of marine pollution. liina's art encourages people to deal with problems in a creative and collaborative way. "seeing and recognizing the problem is the first step towards taking action!" liina says. 
(text taken from the press release for PIF2014)

more photos and stories on www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.573255786131128.1073741835.454668841323157&type=3

ART - AWARENESS - ACTIVISM

i went into the ocean today and someone advised me to go see a doctor afterwards. 
but it is the ocean that needs a doctor! 
isn't it time that we care for and heal the ocean from the pollution, the disrespect and ignorance we burden upon it? 
can't you hear the ocean cry? 
the ocean is suffering tremendously and still we keep looking away. 
we need to change our mind-set. now. 

'catch of the day', installation for PIF2014, pangkor island, malaysia

please watch:   www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn408gmFHqM   thank you. 

here is what KiniTV wrote about my art-awareness-activism:

"You dump, I jump" - German artist protests sea pollution KiniTV

Appalled by the sight of floating rubbish around Pulau Pangkor, one of the visiting exhibitors of the Pangkor Festival, German artist Liina Klauss took an impromptu leap into the rubbish-filled water as a gesture of protest.
She said people need to be educated about the importance of environmental conservation.

clean ocean youth movement

this weekend i was invited to participate at a youth conference again. i love youth conferences! this one was 'CLEAN OCEAN YOUTH MOVEMENT 2014' organized by the society of wilderness (www.sow.org.tw) and held at the national museum of marine biology (www.nmmba.gov.tw/english) in kenting, taiwan. its purpose is to provide young people with latest research on marine pollution, generating ideas and action plans to enable them to come up with their own successful campaign. participating students are chosen from all over the country to join and then share their knowledge and experiences with their fellow students once they are back at their schools and universities. it's a great way to spread knowledge and action through so-called multipliers, finding solutions for environmental problems within close reach of their own communities.

for me personally, apart from this great chance to trigger environmental protection and action, conferences are the best place to meet interesting people! let me introduce some of the speakers to you i got to know at this conference in taiwan.

beth terry comes from california and has seen one of chris jordan's photographs of a giant albatross on midway island, found dead with plastic waste in its belly. right then and there she decided to try and lead a plastic-free life. that's not possible! was my first reaction. but it's been 5 years since then and she hasn't bought a single new plastic item. this picture shows beth with her entire plastic waste from the year 2013. she's written a book about her experiences called 'Plastic Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too' published by skyhorse publishing in 2012. here are some of her tips that make a plastic-free life look so easy (it is definitely easier than you imagine):

more great tips are on her fb-site www.facebook.com/MyPlasticfreeLife

my favourite one is 'make your own'! by making my own e.g. museli bars i not only avoid packaging, but i (1) know what's in it (2) can use healthier ingredients (3) know that it's fresh (4) save some $. love it!

another interesting talk was 'the lighter project' by shigeru fujieda, professor of driftology of kagoshima university, japan. he has been collecting plastic lighters on japanese shores since 1997. the key to his scientific work is that lighters very often show addresses of shops if they are given away as a freebie. this way mr.fujieda is able to track the origin of the lighters and recapture their voyage on high seas. not only does this give a bigger scientific picture of ocean currents, but it also shows the main perpetrators by country when it comes to marine pollution.

other speakers at the conference included marting thiel from chile (www.bedim.cl), la benida hui from the u.s. (www.rareawareness.com), tracey read from hongkong (www.plasticfreeseas.org), jason from taiwan (www.sow.org.tw), rui guang chao from taiwan and joy from greenpeace taiwan (www.greenpeace.org).

my talk 'from waste to art: changing values by changing perception' examines the aesthetic, commercial and intrinsic value of things we use. taking a closer look reveals that this value changes throughout the life-span of things, from design, fabrication, want/craving, acquisition, use, discard to an existence beyond the product's intended consumerist life. it is us who give value to these things. if something is cheap in monetary terms it doesn't mean it's cheap in environmental and humane terms. plastic is the best example. it is dead cheap. but it is idiotic to think that plastic is cheap. we have to pay for it in the long run. not with money, but with our health, with toxins in our food, with polluted nature parks and waters, with inhumane working conditions, the list goes on. and even more daunting, we do not only have to pay now, but for generations to come. my message is to use less and appreciate what we already have!

impromptu 'waste mountain water' installation in front of the big aquarium with our group, the turtles! 

the whole conference was zero-waste, so we all brought our own water bottles, cutlery and bowls. on the right you can see that a plastic sponge was replaced by a natural luffa plant (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luffa), detergent replaced by soda and natural soap. clean means clean for everyone here, not only for humans!

on the left you see the hongkong representatives at the conference: dana and tracey from www.plasticfreeseas.org and joy and me. thanks girls, it was awesome to roll together!

lastly i want to thank everyone from the society of wilderness (www.sow.org.tw) who was involved in bringing this inspiring and fruitful event to life. i want to thank all the students who worked so hard over the course of 4 days and came to best results including presentations, performances, public spaeches, collection of signatures and creative repurposing of plastic waste - you were great! to read more about the clean ocean youth movement 2014, follow this link www.cleanoceanyouthmovement.blogspot.tw

lost'n'found at ocean park hong kong

 talking about mainstream: with over 20,000 visitors per day ocean park hong kong is one of the 7 most popular theme parks worldwide. the park states to provide 'unique experiences that combine entertainment with education and conservation'. as a visitor i always felt that this credo disappears under the mass of entertainment and amusement attractions and the commercialization of animals and nature. for the first time now, not being a visitor but a contributor to these experiences, i'm getting a different angle to this picture. working within the educational department i can see their efforts of bringing awareness, knowledge and conservation approaches into the park. talking about oceans these days is not only amusement! displaying an installation like lost'n'found shows their willingness to confront visitors with the threatening human impacts on the oceans. it is a couragious step away from a generalized, partial and romantisized  perception of the complex marine eco-system!

lost'n'found is part of ocean park's 'blue matters' campaign addressing the problem of marine pollution, over-fishing and marine biodiversity in hong kong. to all of these problems solutions are on hand: ocean park is now only serving sustainable seafood at its restaurants, the ocean park conservation foundation (www.opcf.org.hk) is monitoring species in hongkong waters and trained staff is raising awareness of the negative impacts of plastic packaging. the volume of plastic packaging at the park is reduced by replacing single-use plastic packaging with bio-degradable packaging at all stalls (coming into effect this year) and promoting water fountains to refill your water bottle. this 3-year campaign is a step in the right direction, with a huge impact on over 20,000 hongkongers and mainland chinese each day. from this angle mainstream also means a great chance!

lost'n'found is located directly in front of the old-hongkong-road on your way up to the cable car. you can't miss it. the waste-pai-dong will be on display all through july and august 2014 and is open every day from 10am-5:30pm. 

this is the text on the panel:
"It took one single day, one single beach and one group of motivated people to collect all the rubbish you see in this hawker-stall. It was collected on a beach in South Country Park on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Every single piece you see here has been in the ocean, sometimes for years, before it got washed ashore. The colours are neither altered manually nor digitally. 
Plastic lasts forever! Day by day, year by year, decade by decade plastic is accumulating in the oceans. All sea creatures, from tiny plankton to gigantic whales, are suffering the consequences. They get trapped, strangeled, poisoned and suffer fatal injuries internally as well as externally. These creatures pay for our convenience. Please be aware that plastic lasts forever when you buy your next plastic bottle. 
You are responsible for the choices you make! 
You can make a difference right now by refilling your water-bottle at one of our drinking-water-fountains! Please refer to the guide-map for locations.
Renowned German-born Hong Kong artist liina klauss adopts her signature style of using local beach rubbish and found natural materials to create environmental installations. Gathering a community of volunteers she creates temporary installation on beaches worldwide. Her installations raise awareness for the beauty of nature, for the impact we humans have on it and for the human potential to turn something ugly into something beautiful. 
Through her art liina redefines the value we give waste on an aesthetic as well as on an intrinsic level."

p.s. more recent pictures of lost'n'found in ocean park on facebook.com/artofliinaklauss

waste mountain water / 垃圾山水 in taiwan

'waste mountain water / 垃圾山水 no.9', 2014, jialeshuei beach, taiwan

this is the first art installation that i have done outside of hong kong. it is located on a beautiful beach in kenting national park on the southern tip of taiwan. when i inspected the beach prior to the art installation, i was doubting we'd find enough man-made waste to fill up the whole colour spectrum. sadly enough we did. with the help of over 30 passionate art activists, we painted an area of about 10 square meters with all colours of the rainbow: fishing nets, single-use plastic bottles, boots, shades, straws, a toilet seat... the list is infinite. most of the trash was trapped within rocks and vegetation and not visible on first sight. compared to hong kong there is definitely less trash per square meter on this beach, yet the findings are almost identical: predominantly light-weight plastic. 

some of the found objects i recognized from hong kong. asking if these things were sold in taiwan the activists negated. another bottle still had its origins 'made in the phillipines' printed on it. in my hands i am holding proof of this simple yet horrible truth: warm ocean currents carry plastic waste from south-east-asia towards the north. some of this waste gets washed ashore on beaches like this one in southern taiwan, the rest travels on to the north pacific where it accumulates in a gyre. gathering toxins and breaking down into ever smaller pieces, these pieces are eaten by fish and other sea-creatures. tiny micro-plastics are eaten by plankton. apart from polluting our oceans and threatening wildlife, this man-made material enters the food chain! for more scientific information please visit www.5gyres.org

often i get asked 'what can i do?' and i say 'start with yourself!' in this colour-wheel like in so many other installations that i've done, the single-use water bottles take up almost a fifth of the space. we can eliminate these convenient yet all-polluting PET bottles: bring your own! it might be a tiny action, but if a couple of million people all do the same, it has a huge impact (as we can see in its negative!!).

in the face of so many horrifying facts, i am yet again grateful to meet amazing people who want to help and be part of the solution. to each and everyone who came on that hot day, picking up trash, sorting, sweating, abandoning the surf-board (how hard is that!), playing, taking pictures, and even using the installation for a bonfire: this is not possible without you! you are the ones who spread the message further! my heartfelt gratitude to you. thank you.

i want to especially thank claire from bossa-nova-beach-cafe for organizing this event: you are not only an excellent cook but also an extremely talented event manager! thanks also to la benida for her enthusiasm, help and hospitality: we felt like part of the family!
a big thank you also to society of wilderness (www.sow.org.tw), kenting national park (www.ktnp.gov.tw), kuroshio ocean foundation (www.kuroshio.org.tw) and environmental information association (www.e-info.org.tw) for their support.

more coverage on http://e-info.org.tw/node/99716
and http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/life/breakingnews/1020868

art awareness activists needed in taiwan!

i'm very excited to announce that we'll be doing a waste mountain water / 垃圾山水 in taiwan end of this month!
it's a beautiful beach on the southern most tip of taiwan, blessed with turquoise waters and waves ideal for surfing. the beach is close to a laid back fishing village called jialeshuei. if you happen to be in the area, please drop by! if not please tell everyone you know in taiwan!
for easier communication my friend claire from bossanova beach cafe (very recommendable by the way:) put an event on facebook. the link to the location is very helpful: https://www.facebook.com/events/562257527216788/permalink/562258773883330/

if you want to help spread the word the old-school way, please print out this poster and paste it - yeah:) 

download full resolution poster here: 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/356yxo8ziphkrml/liinaklauss_poster_taiwan_printversion.pdf

friday 30th may 9am to sundown

5月30日週五 上午9時至日落

and saturday 31st may 9am-12pm

5月31日週六上午9時至中午12時

jialeshuei fishing village, southern taiwan 

tea road 248, manzhou township, pingtung county port villagers

佳樂水漁村公園~~南台灣浪點

屏東縣滿州鄉港口村茶山路248號

art installation will be on display until sunday

藝術裝置將展出到週日

see you in taiwan!

curating-the-beach with L.I.S.

the beauty of our countryside on lantau is breathtaking:

but then there's something where you can only hold your breath: the waste of our over-consumption washed ashore, swept down creeks and blown into remote corners of beaches where it gets trapped under branches, roots and behind rocks. once you see this with your own eyes you can't help but feel depressed. it is more shocking than all the words i write here. it will truly make you question the values of our consumerist society. 

and it will make you want to act! so this is what we did today: more than 60 students from lantau international school plus teachers and volunteers came down to this remote beach on lantau and helped to clean it up. there were a lot of red cheeks, sweaty foreheads and proud smiles! and i have to admit that the incredibly enthusiastic spirit of these young people gives me so much hope! thank you all for coming down and getting your hands dirty and your hearts filled with love for nature! 

here's a group picture of our environmental-art-activists proudly posing with their findings (it's high resolution so feel free to download). a lot of the 'treasures' we found today will go into the installation 'lost'n'found', which will be exhibited at stanley promenade in connection with ocean art walk 2014 (12.april  to 04.may). stay posted to this blog (by following by email on the right) for more updates.

and here is our before-and-after shot .... can't help but to feel proud!

there are a couple of more pictures on facebook.com/artofliinaklauss for you to check out. and again, my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who came, cleaned, curated and made lantau a better place!