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This is Sian Ka'an.

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Just south of Tulum
on Mexico's Caribbean coast,

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it's a federally protected reserve,

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a UNESCO World Heritage Site

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and one of the most biodiverse
regions on the planet.

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But when I first visited in 2010,

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I was horrified and completely confused

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as to why the beach was covered in trash.

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I soon realized that it was floating in
from all over the world.

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I've since returned,
after that first journey,

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several times a year

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to visit Sian Ka'an,
to the country of my birth,

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to work with this trash.

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And so far,

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we've documented garbage from
58 different countries and territories

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on six continents,

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all washing ashore
in this paradise in Mexico.

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Although I can never know
where a product was dropped,

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I can, at times, based on the label,
know where something was made.

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In red, you see all of the countries
represented by their trash

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in Sian Ka'an,

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such as these Haitian butter containers
in all shapes and sizes,

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Jamaican water bottles.

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Not surprisingly, a lot of the stuff
is from neighboring Caribbean countries,

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but the stuff is from everywhere.

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Here's a sampling
of international water bottles.

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And one of the ironies is that
a lot of what I'm finding

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are products for cleaning
and beautification,

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such as this item from the United States,

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which is actually made
to protect your plastic --

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(Laughter)

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shampoo from South Korea,

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bleach from Costa Rica

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and a Norwegian toilet cleaner.

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And it's items that are all
very familiar to us,

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or at least I hope you're familiar
with these toothbrushes.

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(Laughter)

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Kitchen utensils.

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Toys.

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I'm also finding evidence
of burning plastic trash,

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which releases cancer-causing
fumes into the air.

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People ask what's the most
interesting item that I've found,

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and that's by far this prosthetic leg.

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And in the background, if you can see
that blue little bottle cap,

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at the time that I found it,

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it was actually the home
to this little hermit crab.

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This guy is so cute.

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(Laughter)

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(Laughter)

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And it's these fascinating objects,

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but also horrifying objects,

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each with their own history,

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that I use to make my ephemeral
environmental artworks.

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And it all started with this image
in February of 2010,

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when I first visited Sian Ka'an.

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I noticed that blue was the most
prevalent color among the plastic.

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Purple is actually the most rare color.
It's kind of like gold to me.

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But blue is the most prevalent,

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and so I gathered some of the blues

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and made this little arrangement
in front of the blue sky

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and blue Caribbean waters.

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And when I took a photograph
and looked at the test shot,

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it was like a lightning bolt
hit me in that moment,

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and I knew I was going
to have to come back

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to create a whole series
of installations on location

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and photograph them.

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So this turned out to be a sketch

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for a work that I completed
three years later.

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I had no idea that almost 10 years later,

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almost a decade later,
I'd still be working on it.

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But the problem persists.

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So I'm going to show you
some of the images

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from the series that I called "Washed Up:
Transforming a Trashed Landscape."

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Please keep in mind that
I do not paint the garbage.

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I'm collecting it
and organizing it by color

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on the same beaches where I find it.

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This is my precious trash pile
as seen in 2015

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after putting on a first edition
of the "Museo de la Basura,"

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or "Museum of Garbage."

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It's fully my intention
to care for this garbage,

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to exalt it,

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put it on a pedestal

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and to curate it.

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We have all seen devastating images

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of animals dying
with plastic in their bellies.

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And it's so important for us
to really see those

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and to take those in.

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But it's by making aesthetic --
some might say beautiful -- arrangements

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out of the world's waste,

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that I'm trying to hook the viewer

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to draw in those that might be numb
to the horrors of the world

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and give them a different way
to understand what's happening.

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Some have described
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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as an island twice the size of Texas,

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but I've been told that it's hard to see

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because it's more like a smog.

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So through my artwork,

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I attempt to depict the reality
of what's happening with our environment

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and to make the invisible visible.

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My key question at first,
after starting the project,

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was, "What do I do
with the garbage when I'm done?"

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I was told by some
that it could be damaged goods

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after traveling across the ocean
and being exposed to the elements,

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that it could become degraded
and potentially ruin a batch of recycling.

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The landfill was not
a happy resting place, either.

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And then finally, it dawned on me,

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after all of the effort by me
and all of the people who have helped me

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collect and organize and clean this trash,

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that I should keep it.

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And so that's the plan,

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to use it and to reuse it endlessly

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to make more artwork

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and to engage communities
in environmental art-making.

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This is an example of a community-based
artwork that we did last year

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with the local youth
of Punta Allen in Sian Ka'an.

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A key part of the community work
are the beach cleans

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and education programming.

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And as this community
around the project grows

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and as my trash collection grows,

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I really believe that
the impact will as well.

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And so, over the years,

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I've become a little obsessed
with my trash collection.

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I pack it into suitcases
and travel with it.

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I take it on vacation with me.

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(Laughter)

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And in the latest work,

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I've begun to break the two-dimensional
plane of the photograph.

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I'm really excited about this new work.

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I see these as living artworks

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that will morph and grow over time.

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Although my greatest wish
is that I run out of the raw material

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for this work,

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we're not there yet.

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So in the next phase of the project,

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I plan on continuing the community work

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and making my own work
at a much larger scale,

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because the problem is massive.

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Eight million tons of plastic waste
enter our oceans every year,

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destroying ecosystems.

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Right now, as I speak, there's literally
an oil spill of plastic happening.

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I see this project as a plea for help
and a call to action.

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Our health and future
is inextricably linked

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to that of our oceans.

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I call the project "Washed Up:
Transforming a Trashed Landscape,"

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but it's actually transformed me

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and made me rethink
my own behaviors and consumption.

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And if it can help anybody else
gain more awareness,

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then it will have been worthwhile.

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Thank you so much.

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(Applause)