TASHKEEL  "PLASTIC"  GROUP EXHIBITION ( DUBAI)

04th March  - 14th April 2020

Spencer exhibited an installation " Wain Polar Bear" at The Tashkeel " Plastic" Group Exhbition 

This transfigurative work consists of 3 Polar Bears that are frozen in ice with plastic. They slowly melt over the day to highlight the effect of single use plastics on climate change, micro-plastic pollution of the Arctic Ocean and the impact that this is having on the Arctic Ecosystem.
The plastic industry is the second largest and fastest-growing source of industrial greenhouse gas emissions, and 99% of what goes into plastic is derived from fossil fuels. It's a byproduct of oil, coal and gas and a key contributor to CO2 emissions. 
Polar Bears rely almost exclusively on a calorie loaded diet of seals, which they can only hunt on the sea ice. Global warming  which is heating up the Arctic faster than anywhere else, with the sea ice shrinking 14 percent every decade. The ice forms later and thaws earlier each year, forcing bears to burn huge amounts of energy walking and swimming long distances to find the remaining ice to hunt. They often fail to capture any prey and die of starvation. If the ice continues to melt at the current rates, it is expected that the global polar bear population could be reduced by two thirds to less than 10,000 by 2050.