Parley for the Oceans: eco-initiative debuts Artist Bags

last updated 12 June 2019

“The ocean, the sea, and the waves have had a big influence on my life,” begins Julian Schnabel. “The ocean teaches us to be humble, to respect it, and to accept that we are all part of something greater.” Earlier this year, the Manhattan artist whose large-scale works feature in the permanent collections of global institutions including New York City's MoMa and the Guggenheim, teamed up with eco-initiative Parley for the Oceans. A commission with a difference, the project saw Schnabel swap canvas for Parley's signature Ocean Plastic, a material woven from plastic waste collected by Parley's cleanup network working on remote islands and coastlines. “It is so important that people finally comprehend that there is something bigger than them,” says Schnabel.

For Parley for the Oceans' ambitious Artist Bags series, Schnabel joined six of his peers, among them Pipilotti Rist and Walton Ford in drafting special edition totes. Issued in a limited edition, each bag uses Ocean Plastic equal to five recycled plastic bottles and the sale of a single tote sponsors the clean-up of 20 pounds of marine plastic waste.

From her studio in Hoosick Falls, a small village in upstate New York, Jenny Holzer dreamt up a bag in the azure colours of the ocean; Jenny Trockel stuck to a strict red and white palette for her design. American multi-hyphenate creative Doug Aitken devised a quartet of bags, all printed with graphic artworks. Combing painterly beauty with some introspective words, much lauded artist Ed Ruscha's accessory is of otherworldly beauty. “No one sees the trash in the ocean — it’s easy to not think about it,” Ruscha says. “Parley is addressing this problem, and I’m proud to support the cause.”