Paris-based artist Tadashi Kawamata has created a monumental installation of ocean plastic in the Oval Gallery of Lisbon's Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology.

The exhibition, called Over Flow, was commissioned by the Portugese museum to draw attention to the proliferation of plastic debris in our oceans.

The large-scale commission is made up of plastic waste as well as boats, collected on the country's coastline by the volunteer clean-up group, Brigada do Mar.
The group started out in 2009 with the objective of cleaning up coastal areas and protecting biodiversity. According to Brigada do Mar, every year they are able to clean up 28 miles of beach, removing between 20 and 30 tons of plastic litter, with a permanent team of 50 volunteers and many other volunteer members.
The collected debris fills the gallery space in a sculptural form arranged by Kawamata to resemble an imagined version of the aftermath of an environmental disaster. Visitors are able to walk about under a canopy of plastic waste.
"Over Flow is a truly immersive installation, inviting viewers to experience a seascape of remains which follows a fictional ecological catastrophe," said the museum.

In creating this piece, Kawamata was responding to his memory of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011, but also echoing the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology's (MAAT) location near the coast.
The piece was put together over the course of a year of research and field work ...