Margate

SamP

Lily Mixe

<div>One huge misconception in the natural world is that coral is a plant, but in fact, corals are actually small marine animals. The “hard” type of coral grows with the help of algae, which not only gives it colour, but also brings with it nutrients that help to form a sturdy, stony skeleton. Reefs, which form through the accumulation of hard coral, are a vital ecosystem, supporting an estimated 25 percent of ocean species.</div><div><br>The coral forms large bushy colonies which can be either free or fixed to the substratum.The polyps are translucent and have up to 50 tentacles, with obsolete terminal knobs. The colour is white, pink or yellowish. In British and Irish waters, Lophelia pertusa colonies occur in groups which are no more than 5-10 m in diameter, and often smaller. Individual polyps are connected by their external calcareous skeletons. The skeletons of individual polyps are up to 12 mm in diameter.</div><div><br>This mural captures a micro species that is seldom seen in person and explores the macro representation of that world to better highlight how strikingly beautiful the polyps truly are. Layered onto a brightly coloured camouflage background, the painting creates a juxtaposition with the corals and elevates a notion of being hidden and unknown in plain sight.<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.riseupresidency.co.uk/<br>www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/</div>

Coral

Martin Whatson

<div>Whales are a key element of a symbiotic ecosystem and maintaining a healthy aquatic environment. An estimated minimum of 300,000 whales and dolphins are killed each year as a result of fisheries bycatch. This results in a destabilisation of the ocean's food chain.</div><div><br>The commercial fishing industry can have a devastating and irreversible effect on ocean biodiversity. Some of the many ways it is damaging include the entanglement of species in fishing nets, increased by-catch casualties, ploughing of the ocean bed, churning of the ocean rainforest and plastics from ghost nets that are mistaken for food and consumed.</div><div><br>Fighting on the front line is Sea Shepherd. During March of 2021, five trawlermen were arrested for illegal fishing as Sea Shepherd engaged in a new partnership with the governments of Sierra Leone, Peru, Gabon and Mexico. Around the world Sea Shepherd are building additional partnerships with national governments to stop illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in their sovereign waters, and to ultimately protect marine wildlife.</div><div><br>If we leave the ocean to recover, the ultimate success will be a return of our ocean rainforests which will sequester our CO2 on land.<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.riseupresidency.co.uk/<br>www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/</div>

Whale 

Dreph

<div>The rising of sea levels is a topic that can seem so far away from the concerns of everyday life here in Margate. Sadly just in the same way as many low-lying countries and smaller islands around the world will have to evaluate how they deal with rising sea levels, many parts of the UK will also need to turn their attention to this increasingly impactful crisis. Eventually, Thanet will return to being an island off the coast of mainland UK, as it was before farmers filled in the rivers. It’s currently estimated that this could become a reality as soon as the year 2050.</div><div><br>This mural captures two local Thanet children playing with sandcastles on the beach, water rising all around the castle, and asks whether it is fair to leave this scenario for the young and as-yet unborn to deal with. Addressing our carbon footprints <em>today</em> is vital, to undo the unnecessary responsibilities that we are currently leaving for those in future generations.</div><div><br>We can take steps to reduce our individual carbon by changing our diets, shopping habits, energy and transport choices. To that end, RUR is challenging how event production is conducted, opting to use a Graphenstone biosphere which, applied up to four weeks before the mural is painted, sequesters carbon.</div><div><br>With special thanks to Margate locals Shona and Daisy for being a part of this project.<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.<a href="https://riseupresidency.co.uk/">riseupresidency.co.uk/</a><br>www.<a href="https://www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/">riseupcleanup.co.uk/</a><br><br></div>

Sandcastles & Sea Level Rising

David Shillinglaw

<div>At any one time, pollution warnings are in place for more than 100 British beaches, due entirely to the practice of untreated sewage being discharged directly into the sea. These warnings appear on the Safer Seas and Rivers Service, run by the charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), and are based on data taken from water-providing firms across the country. Every time a storm hits the UK, the SAS app lights up a hoard of ‘danger zone’ red areas.</div><div><br>As has been highly publicised in recent revelations by the UK press, Southern Water, the Thanet water provider, is one of many British providers currently discharging untreated sewage into bathing sites. Southern Water alone discharged sewage into 30 local sites during September 2022.</div><div><br>Speaking on the issue, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas highlights - "We have a so-called plan that allows water companies to continue polluting until 2035 in areas, with significant importance to human and ecological health, and until 2050 elsewhere. That's sanctioning almost 30 years more of pollution,"&nbsp;</div><div><br>To draw as much attention to the scandal as possible, this mural is positioned directly leading out towards the ocean off Cliftonville, aiming to remind those who see it of the through-flow of raw sewage at the hands of Southern water into the ocean.&nbsp;<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.riseupresidency.co.uk/<br>www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/</div>

Local Cosmos

Onur

Onurpainting

<div>In the far future, how different will the natural landscapes we collectively treasure, in the places we live, travel to and covet as wonders of the natural world, actually look? Will landfills – currently occupying spaces we can conveniently ignore or forget – become so gigantic that we see them as mountains alongside rock formations? Our local beaches are already left looking like rubbish dumps each summer, with visitors seeking sand and sun sat among discarded nappies, crisp packets and water bottles. Rise Up. Clean Up. has conducted 42 beach cleans over the past three summers, with 968 bin bags of rubbish collected. In total, that’s 4.8 tonnes, which covers 242m2 – a full three quarters of Margate Sands beach.</div><div><br>From a distance, this painting is a highly-rendered mountainscape, with everything you would expect from the artistic vocabulary of a moody Dutch master. The scene begs you to take a closer look, however, and discover the finer details. Plastic bags inform the textures, their creases cleverly disguising the brutal truth behind our current horrendous problems with rubbish.&nbsp;</div><div><br>Everyday Plastic is a Margate-based, research-led non-profit focused on evidence-based education and campaigns. Through active participation with members of the public, they help individuals and organisations understand the realities of everyday plastic use, and how they can make a difference to the future of the natural world and our own.</div><div><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.riseupresidency.co.uk/<br>www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/</div>

Selfmade 

Faunagraphic

<div>Grey herons are unmistakable; tall, long legs, elegant beak with grey, black, and white feathering. They stand with their neck proudly stretched out or hunched over searching for fish, small birds and mammals. Thanet's Pegwell Bay is a shallow inlet in the English Channel coast astride the estuary of the river Stour between Ramsgate and Sandwich. The mudflats and salt marshes of Pegwell bay are home to local herons, migrating waders and wildfowl.</div><div><br>This heron's habitat has been infected by an oil spill. When oil sticks to a bird's feathers, it causes them to mat and separate, impairing waterproofing and exposing the animal's sensitive skin to extremes in temperature. Instinctively, the bird tries to get the oil off its feathers by preening, which results in the animal ingesting the oil and causing severe damage to its internal organs. Many oil-soaked birds lose their buoyancy and beach themselves in their attempt to escape the cold water.</div><div><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.<a href="https://riseupresidency.co.uk/">riseupresidency.co.uk/</a><br>www.<a href="https://www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/">riseupcleanup.co.uk/</a></div>

Heron

Nuno Viegas

<div>RISE UP RESIDENCY is a week-long mural project and educational programme taking place in September 2022 in Margate, Kent. The initiative is spearheaded by RISE UP. CLEAN UP. and Margate-based, internationally acclaimed artist Louis Masai.</div><div><br>The residency welcomes seventeen local and international artists to stay in Margate and create public art as a means of raising awareness of ocean conservation and the issues caused by plastic in and near our oceans. From documenting ocean biodiversity to plastic hazards and ocean species, the murals will remain in the town and intend to act as an educational backdrop. Their aim is to inspire, unite and empower the community of Margate and its visitors to partake in reducing plastics and respecting the ocean.</div><div><br>The residency intends to support and directly engage with the community of Margate through a series of talks and workshops from local businesses and direct employment of locals to work on the programme. <br><br>To follow up with a theme and paint a piece that would speak up for the local comunity about the issues that have been brought up and fought by the R<a href="https://www.instagram.com/riseupcleanup/">ise Up Clean Up</a> people.<br><br>"It took me a while to find a nice concept that would still be about my usual language and iconography but also have a different speech towards the event's theme. Quite frustrating until the moment I actually got it to be honest... But I was soo pleased with this one!<br>Inspired by an image of an hermit crab I found while researching for this concept.<br>For this event I paired up with the C<a href="https://www.instagram.com/crabmuseum/">rab Museum</a> If you ever come to Margate, make sure to stop by and learn some interesting facts about crabs and the sea. And if you stop by, make sure to show some love and support by donating a little something something as this is not-for-profit organisation.": tells Nuno</div>

Hermit Crap

Smug

<div>Both grey and harbour seals live in Thanet, and can be easily seen from the dunes at Pegwell bay. Sometimes they get beached along the shoreline in Margate too, and you might have even seen someone from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) watching over them, to ensure that they are safe from contact with humans and domesticated animals in built-up areas.&nbsp;</div><div><br>Today, seals regularly fall victim to the adverse affects of many different ocean plastic scenarios, from frisbees, ghost nets, six-pack drink pulls, and even deep wounds from boats and jet skis.</div><div><br>BDMLR was formed in 1988 in response to the Phocine Distemper Virus epidemic, which resulted in thousands of deaths. A few like-minded divers got together to lend help during the mass mortality of common seals in the Wash area of East Anglia, and to do whatever they could for the rescue effort.</div><div><br>BDMLR, part based in Margate, are the seals’ only hope when it comes to freedom from plastics, necessary veterinary assistance and eventually being released back into the wild. This mural is an insight into local activism helping local ocean mammals, created on the doorstep of a location these much-needed interventions occur.</div><div><br>With thanks to British Divers Marine Life Rescue.<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.riseupresidency.co.uk/<br>www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/</div>

Seal Rescue

Curtis Hylton

<div>Four seahorses are depicted, referencing the four horsemen of the apocalypse, biblical figures who appear in the Book of Revelation. Each of the horsemen represents a different facet of the apocalypse: conquest, war, famine, and death. Instead of the conventional equestrian representation, this mural pays tribute to the adorable seahorses, representing rising temperatures, water acidity, water pollution, and overfishing.&nbsp;</div><div><br>In the background is a rainforest of seagrass also known as blue carbon. Ocean rainforests absorb more carbon than land rainforests, yet are rarely discussed by world leaders. The fishing industry has destroyed most of the world's ocean rainforests, which also destroys biodiversity and increases habitat loss. Seahorses rely on seagrass to cling onto, remaining static against the current to feed on krill, copepods, fish larvae, and other tiny edibles.&nbsp;</div><div><br>Seahorses are fish. They live in water, breathe through gills and have a swim bladder. There are two species found on the British Coastline, the Spiny Seahorse and the Short Snouted Seahorse. Both can be found from the Shetland Isles mainly down the west coast of the UK, all around Ireland and along the south coast of England. We also have also reported sightings of Seahorses on the east coast, and a few years ago they were found in both the North Sea and across the Channel in France.<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.<a href="https://riseupresidency.co.uk/">riseupresidency.co.uk/</a><br>www.<a href="https://www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/">riseupcleanup.co.uk/</a></div>

The Four Horsemen

Louis Masai

<div>&nbsp;RISE UP RESIDENCY is a week-long mural project and educational programme taking place in September 2022 in Margate, Kent. The initiative is spearheaded by RISE UP. CLEAN UP. and Margate-based, internationally acclaimed artist Louis Masai.</div><div><br>The residency welcomes seventeen local and international artists to stay in Margate and create public art as a means of raising awareness of ocean conservation and the issues caused by plastic in and near our oceans. From documenting ocean biodiversity to plastic hazards and ocean species, the murals will remain in the town and intend to act as an educational backdrop. Their aim is to inspire, unite and empower the community of Margate and its visitors to partake in reducing plastics and respecting the ocean.</div><div><br>The residency intends to support and directly engage with the community of Margate through a series of talks and workshops from local businesses and direct employment of locals to work on the programme.&nbsp;</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Within an ocean forest of local kelps and seaweeds (also known as blue carbon) is a floating plastic bottle. Inside the bottle is a trapped local spotted catshark, shocking reports have averaged 2-3 sharks killed every second. Being a local shark highlights that UK oceans are also a part of those statistics. Our partners Sea Shepherd’s sole mission is to protect and conserve the world’s oceans and marine wildlife. They work to defend all marine wildlife, from whales and dolphins to sharks and rays, to fish and krill, without exception.</div><div><br>Growing off the plastic bottle is more seaweeds, highlighting the length of time the plastic bottle has already been in the water. In 2022 Our partners Everyday Plastic teamed up with Greenpeace to create the UK’s biggest nationwide investigation into household plastic waste. Almost 250,000 people from nearly 100,000 households took part in The Big Plastic Count and over one week they threw away just under 6.5 million pieces of plastic packaging waste.</div><div><br>During the production of this mural Moon Bottles provided us with refill bottles so we didn’t contribute to Thanet’s plastic problem. Alongside our partners City To Sea we are also campaigning a Thanet wide water bottle refill scheme to reduce the amount of plastics leaving our homes and entering the oceans.&nbsp;</div>

Bottled Shark

<div>Margate is lucky to have its very own crab museum, showcasing the incredible diversity of the species. They can be tiny, huge, cute, scary, vulnerable, indestructible and millions of years old. They affect all of our lives in ways that would never occur to most of us, from maintaining the oceans to helping us to create important new medicines.&nbsp;</div><div><br>Thanet has its own population of local hermit crabs, which is where the inspiration for this mural was born. Our friends at Thanet Coastal Project told us that hermit crabs can be found throughout the British Isles, usually occupying rocky and sandy shorelines. They live in rock pools and pools of seawater in sandy bays, carrying their shells with them, then swapping them regularly for larger ones as they grow and moult.&nbsp;</div><div><br>Due to the huge quantities of plastic entering the ocean’s biodiversity, hermit crabs occasionally upgrade their homes to a plastic item – the example depicted here has found a discarded Bic pen top. Reports now confirm that hermit crabs even find their way into plastic bottles. When they grow too big, they get stuck inside and die, letting off a pheromone alerting other crabs that the once occupied home is now vacant. The cumulative effect of this unnatural incursion into the natural world results in plastic bottles found discarded on the beach, full of dead hermit crabs.&nbsp;<br><br></div><div>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.riseupresidency.co.uk/<br>www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/</div>

Nomad Clan

<div>Captured in this mural is a modern-day folklore based on the Greek goddess of the seas, Amphitrite. The work highlights the stark contrast of a once-worshiped mother of all fish, seals and whales, the Queen of the seas, now sat in a human-corrupted, faded seascape of bleached corals and plastic waste.&nbsp;</div><div><br>Huge numbers of shocking stats can be found with a simple Google search. Since 1950, 90% of all Sealife has been wiped out. By 2050, 90% of all coral will have died out due to global warming and the rise of ocean temperatures. If the pace in which we pull life from the sea doesn't slow, overfishing will empty our oceans by 2048. There are now 5.25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in our ocean, and 46,000 pieces in every square mile of ocean, weighing up to 269,000 tonnes.&nbsp;</div><div><br>The poignant placement of an ancient Greek goddess sunk to the bottom of our modern-day plastic addiction is both tragic and alarming. Maybe one day, the stories of oceans filled with abundance, life and colourful corals, will be a folklore told by future generations. What is almost certain is that the plastics will still be there, documenting the emptiness of a once bustling biodiversity.&nbsp;</div><div><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.riseupresidency.co.uk/<br>www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/</div>

Amphitrite

<div>Within an ocean forest of local kelps and seaweeds (also known as blue carbon) is a floating plastic bottle. Inside the bottle is a trapped local spotted catshark, shocking reports have averaged 2-3 sharks killed every second. Being a local shark highlights that UK oceans are also a part of those statistics. Our partners Sea Shepherd’s sole mission is to protect and conserve the world’s oceans and marine wildlife. They work to defend all marine wildlife, from whales and dolphins to sharks and rays, to fish and krill, without exception.</div><div><br>Growing off the plastic bottle is more seaweeds, highlighting the length of time the plastic bottle has already been in the water. In 2022 Our partners Everyday Plastic teamed up with Greenpeace to create the UK’s biggest nationwide investigation into household plastic waste. Almost 250,000 people from nearly 100,000 households took part in The Big Plastic Count and over one week they threw away just under 6.5 million pieces of plastic packaging waste.&nbsp;</div><div><br>During the production of this mural Moon Bottles provided us with refill bottles so we didn’t contribute to Thanet’s plastic problem. Alongside our partners City To Sea we are also campaigning a Thanet wide water bottle refill scheme to reduce the amount of plastics leaving our homes and entering the oceans.<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.riseupresidency.co.uk/<br>www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/</div>

Shark in Bottle

Catherine Chinatree

<div>Catherine Chinatree is a painter, recently inspired by the daily ritual of bathing in the sea at the Walpole Bay Tidal Pool in Margate. “The ecstatic response of submerging in the water, the ecstasy vs fear of taking yourself out of a comfort zone, to expose the body to the natural element of very cold water, can be emotional, spiritual and physical”.&nbsp;</div><div><br>Peter Nicholls is a British/Seychellois researcher, writer and creator from Margate. His work explores oceanic history and underwater cultural heritage. He has traced sunken slave ships in the Thames estuary including Thanet waters, exploring their meanings as sacred underwater sites.&nbsp;</div><div><br>This mural gives reference to the wake – a lasting trail of turbulence and a realm of consciousness first set in motion by the slave ships that began to move across (and to the bottom of) the oceans. Christina Sharpe writes that the ‘residence time’ – or time spent in the ocean – for ancestors who were thrown, (or jumped) from these ships is 260 million years. Until then, we will feel the salt that belonged to their bodies as part of the oceans’ salinity, always with us as we also exist in the wake.&nbsp;</div><div><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.<a href="https://riseupresidency.co.uk/">riseupresidency.co.uk/</a><br>www.<a href="https://www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/">riseupcleanup.co.uk/</a></div>

The Wake

Doudou Style

Jessy'Doudou'Montlouis

<div>Given the choice between eating their favourite food or a plastic bag, it’s hard to believe that anyone would pick the latter option. But what if they looked identical, and you couldn’t tell the difference? Sadly, this is an all too real issue increasingly causing damage to the leatherback turtle population. According to theworldcounts.com, 160,000 plastic bags are manufactured around the world every second. Surfers Against Sewage's research suggests that every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans. The likelihood of a leatherback turtle coming into proximity with a plastic bag is extremely likely.&nbsp;</div><div><br>Floating translucent plastic bags, with the occasional flash of brightly coloured typography and branding, could be and often are easily mistaken for a delicious, floating, translucent jellyfish. For any creature to be trapped in a world in which it’s impossible to identify its next meal is a threat to its very existence. Sadly, it is now assumed that all turtles globally have some level of plastics lining their guts. They have lived on this planet for 230 million years, yet it’s only been 160 years since Alexander Parkes introduced the world's first man-made plastic. If we don’t do something now, our younger generation will be left watching and wondering why we let all the turtles disappear.&nbsp;</div><div><br>With special thanks to Margate local and budding oceanographer Knight.<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.<a href="https://riseupresidency.co.uk/">riseupresidency.co.uk/</a><br>www.<a href="https://www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/">riseupcleanup.co.uk/</a></div>

Leatherback Turtle - Plastic Bag or Jellyfish?

Li Hill

<div>Did you know it snows in the ocean? In the deep ocean, marine snow also known as "ocean dandruff" is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column. It is a significant means of exporting energy from the light-rich photic zone to the aphotic zone below, which is referred to as the ‘biological pump’. Marine snow can be an important food source for organisms living in the aphotic zone, particularly for those which live very deep in the water column.&nbsp;</div><div><br>In this modern world, we have a new ocean snow: micro plastics. A recent model found that 99.8 percent of plastic that entered the ocean since 1950 had sunk below the first few hundred feet of the ocean. Scientists have found 10,000 times more microplastics on the seafloor than in contaminated surface waters. These micro plastics enter the biodiversity of the food chain, meaning that all life in the sea now contains micro plastics.&nbsp;</div><div><br>This mural highlights human entanglement and subsequent process of environmental degradation. We must attempt to rise out of the destructive cycle we have built around us. The plastic that enters the oceans and water ways ultimately ends up inside our bodies also. Statistics state that we now consume a credit card’s worth of plastic every week.<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.<a href="https://riseupresidency.co.uk/">riseupresidency.co.uk/</a><br>www.<a href="https://www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/">riseupcleanup.co.uk/</a></div>

Ocean in Red

Herakut

hera

Hera_herakut

hera herakut

Herakut (GER)

<div>Ocean folklore has always been abundant in coastal communities, with none more prevalent than the mermaid. It is thought that one possible mermaid origin could be the Dugong from China, which as of September 2022 was declared extinct. Some mermaids are portrayed as sirens and tempests of the deep blue, but what if they were tirelessly untangling corals of ghost nets left by deep sea trawlers?</div><div><br>If our oceans are to stand a chance of surviving the next chapter of human life, creating folkloric tales for future generations, we must act as ambassadors for change. British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) are doing exactly that. Every year, BDMLR trains over 1000 volunteer Marine Mammal Medics, and has 20 whale rescue pontoons located at strategic points throughout the UK, waiting to help stranded whales and dolphins. Medics are trained to provide them with the basic knowledge, skills and expertise to enable volunteer teams to respond to a callout and act on behalf of that animal’s best welfare interests.</div><div><br>Mermaids might be considered fictional characters, but the challenges of cleaning up our oceans and protecting what life is left is a profound reality, and an increasingly pressing issue. Let’s hope that those mermaids are out there: we need all the help we can get.<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.riseupresidency.co.uk/<br>www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/</div>

The Merfolk…

Jordan T Gray

<div>Sometimes an invention seems somewhat overkill, or just not really needed. Plastic sheaths on cucumbers seem ridiculous, as do plastic six pack rings on cans of beer. The six-pack rings in most common use today are the descendants of an original design by ITW Hi-Cone, which first introduced them in St. Louis, Missouri in summer 1960. Within 10 years, plastic rings had completely replaced the paper and metal based holders then common in the market. Today there are alternatives, like a cardboard box, and the option of seaweed plastics to replace fossil fuel plastics. It is shocking to think that six pack rings are still being manufactured despite the hundreds of horrific examples of wildlife getting caught up in them.&nbsp;</div><div><br>You will have already spotted this stylised fish character as the rise up residency logo, and here it’s joined by some other friends in the stamp station: look out for the octopus, seahorse, lobster and dolphin. This mural highlights the sad story of six fish swimming as a school trapped inside the classic six pack of plastic rings. If you’re still buying your drinks in this fashion, please remember to cut all the loops and rings. That way, if it doesn’t get disposed of correctly, it does less harm to another living creature. As they say: drink responsibly.&nbsp;<br><br>Instagram: @riseupresidency_<br>www.riseupresidency.co.uk/<br>www.riseupcleanup.co.uk/</div>

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