If you ask many Hawaiian locals if they know Kamilo Point you mostly get a blank look. It’s not a tourist destination or a local hotspot. It’s also really hard to get to as its not on what you would call a road. You need a 4WD and a good sense of direction. We had both and still got lost and nearly stuck in the sand dunes.
Kamilo Point (or Trash beach, as it is known to the locals) is somewhere near the southern most point of the USA. It sits on Big Island, Hawaii nestled between the glassy green sands of the bay and the closest beach to the Pacific Garbage Patch. My general enthusiasm to go visit this beach brought me and the family to the beginning of a trip of a lifetime, a very bumpy journey along non-existent roads, and wrong turnings that led directly into the sea.
It was the beginning of an amazing experience, and one I am still working with. The work I am creating now is a response to this trip and I am really enjoying myself!
However, the subject is pretty depressing. The amount of plastic-to-sand ratio at Kamilo beach was really shocking, even to someone like me who has read a lot about plastic marine pollution. Every day the tide brings in a new load of tiny plastic pieces (here is a picture taken through a microscope of the sand particles and plastic pieces).
So I picked up a lot of pieces and I sent them back home and now I am working on a show, but that’s another blog…
This year for Do The Green Thing and WWF’s Earth Day project I made some ‘Hawaiian Beach Lights’ Here’s the link; http://thomasmatthews.com/sophie-helps-launch-earth-hour-2015-for-wwf-and-do-the-green-thing/
wasted talent 