PLANET OR PLASTIC ?
Collaboration with Dubai National Geographic 2019 Calendar

For 130 years, National Geographic has documented the stories of our planet, providing audiences around the world with a window into the earth’s breathtaking beauty as well as to the threats it faces.

More than five trillion pieces of plastic are already floating in our oceans. With nine million tons more thrown in every year. Which is why National Geographic launched Planet or Plastic? — a multiyear initiative aimed at raising awareness of this challenge and reducing the amount of single-use plastic that enters in the world's oceans.

For our 2019 calendar, we collaborated with 12 young artists from the 12 countries that suffer most from ocean plastic pollution to create 12 artworks for 12 months. Each one highlighting the environmental and health impact of plastic waste on their country’s marine ecosystems and all who rely upon them.

After all, every day matters, every single-use plastic counts and no one can save us from ourselves but ourselves.


Kelseyz | August 

Artist: Kelseyz
Country: Malaysia

The Kuala Lumpur visual artist and illustrator’s home country is one of the most pearl-rich in the world, but the dumping of millions of tonnes of waste every year has seen plastic bags begin to outnumber the gems. The local government has since imposed a levy and ban on plastic waste imports, but Kelseyz, aka Troublexy, who has produced a cartoon-style drawing with a child-like character that features frequently in her body of work, won’t allow us to forget the damage that’s already been done.



The 12 artists in the 2019 Calendar are Helena Iyzu from Bangladesh, Sheng Chen from China, Ahmed Karam from Egypt, Pavan Rajurkar from India, Kathrin Honesta from Indonesia, Kelseyz from Malaysia, Thomas Ero from Nigeria, Kristy Anne Ligones from the Philippines, Wilmari Botha from South Africa, Ruwangi Amarasinghe from Sri Lanka, Bom Cherdsak from Thailand and Thao Mien Phan from Vietnam.

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