ArtScience Museum will welcome Planet or Plastic? – a photography exhibition by National Geographic – to Singapore this September. The exhibition shines a spotlight on the fragility of the natural environment as a result of the global plastic waste crisis. Opening on 12 September, Planet or Plastic Exhibition is the first exhibition to launch at ArtScience Museum since it re-opened after Singapore’s Circuit-Breaker.

Planet or Plastic Exhibition – Exhibition Overview

Featuring 70 powerful images from photographers around the world, Planet or Plastic? tells the story behind plastic from its invention just over a century ago to its mass consumption today. The exhibition endeavours to raise awareness of society’s dependence on plastic by visually depicting the global plastic waste crisis and highlighting the innovative individuals and communities who are working on solutions to this urgent problem. The show builds upon National Geographic’s multiyear global initiative aimed at reducing the amount of single-use plastic that reaches the ocean.

“Plastic pollution is one of the most important global environmental challenges of our generation. But it is an issue that we can all do something about. This exhibition informs us about how we got here, the scope of the problem, and how we can each be a part of the solution. National Geographic has made a commitment to reducing our reliance on single-use plastics and our hope is that after seeing this exhibition, visitors will join us in that commitment,” said Kathryn Keane, Vice President of Public Programming at the National Geographic Society.

“ArtScience Museum has a deep commitment to sustainability and raising awareness of environmental issues. Planet or Plastic? is the latest of a series of exhibitions and education projects we have presented over the last decade which shows the importance of collective action to create a better world. This year during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen what humanity can achieve when we work together on common goals. If we can apply that shared determination to grave environmental threats, such as plastic pollution, we may be able to look forward to a more sustainable future. We invite all our visitors to choose the planet over plastic,” added Honor Harger, Executive Director of ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands.

Planet or Plastic Exhibition – 2nd NatGeo Exhibition At ArtScience Museum

Planet or Plastic? is the second National Geographic photography exhibition to be hosted at ArtScience Museum after 50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic in 2015. This new exhibition takes you on a captivating visual journey, as seen through the lenses of National Geographic photographers and explorers who are witnessing first-hand the devastating impact of plastic pollution on the natural world, especially in the oceans.

Plastic has eased space travel, extended the shelf life of fresh food, allows for the delivery of clean drinking water to those without it, and even saves lives when used in airbags or helmets. Despite its utility and convenience, an exorbitant amount of plastic products are disposed of improperly with some 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste1 left unrecycled.

Included in the exhibition is an emotive image below taken by award-winning underwater photographer, Jordi Chias, which depicts a loggerhead turtle ensnared in an old plastic fishing net in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain. The turtle could stretch its neck above water to breathe, but it would have died if the photographer had not freed it. Chias won the ‘One Earth’ award at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2010 with this image.

One of the major hurdles to recycling is properly cleaning and sorting the materials. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, women sort through a mountain of discarded plastic bottles gathered by waste pickers, which will be melted down and remade into new plastic products. In the photograph taken by Randy Olson below, it shows places which provide employment and help remove discarded plastic from flowing into the sea.

Planet or Plastic? makes the important case for the need to find a balance between using this material and protecting our environment. It provides actionable steps you can take in their lives to responsibly reduce, reuse, recycle, and refuse products with single-use plastic. At the culmination of the exhibition, you are encouraged to make a pledge to reduce their own consumption of single-use plastic.

Planet or Plastic Exhibition – Tickets and Reservations

Tickets to Planet or Plastic? are available for purchase from September onwards at ArtScience Museum’s website and box office. Terms and Conditions apply. You are highly encouraged to pre-purchase tickets online prior to their visit, due to limits in venue capacity and timed entry to exhibitions at ArtScience Museum. Each guest is limited to five tickets per purchase.

Ticket prices as follows:

Since reopening its doors, ArtScience Museum has implemented additional precautionary measures to safeguard the well-being of its visitors and staff. These include:

• Safe entry: Temperature screening and mandatory digital check-in for contact tracing purposes.
• Capacity control: Digital clickers are employed at the museum and exhibitions’ entrances to regulate the capacity. TallyFi system is also used to keep track of real-time capacity within the museum’s spaces.
• Safe distancing: Safe Distancing Ambassadors are deployed to look out for groups of more than 5 visitors and remind them of safe distancing guidelines.
• Enhanced hygiene protocol: Increased frequency of cleaning and disinfection of common spaces, high touch surfaces, such as counters and kiosks, as well as equipment. Hand sanitisers are placed in common areas and at all artworks.

For more information on Planet or Plastic?, please visit https://marinabaysands.com/museum/exhibitions/planet-or-plastic.html