Sudarshan Pattnaik’s sculpture highlighted the dangers of plastic pollution in oceans
Renowned Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has won the People’s Choice Award at the recently-concluded Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival in Boston, Massachusetts.
Pattnaik was among the 15 top sand artists selected from across the world to participate in the annual festival. His sand sculpture titled “Stop Plastic Pollution, Save Our Ocean,” highlighted dangers of plastic pollution in oceans and the importance and urgency to combat it. The Odisha native is known to convey social messages and themes through his art.
Pattnaik’s sculpture showed a turtle caught in a plastic bag and a fish with plastic trash such as slippers, bottles and glass inside its body. The tail of the fish is in the mouth of a human, signifying how plastic pollution in the oceans is adversely impacting human beings also when they consume sea food.
“This is a very big award and honor for me in the U.S.,” Pattnaik told the Press Trust of India. “This award is for India,” he added. “Thousands of people voting for my sculpture that highlights the problem of plastic pollution underscores that the public too is concerned about our oceans getting polluted and supports the urgent need to take action to save our oceans and planet,” he said. Through his sculpture he said he wants to highlight that human activity is destroying the oceans and humans are also getting impacted by polluted waterways as they consume food from the sea and rivers.
Hosted by non-profit organization Revere Beach Partnership, the festival, now in its 16th year, ran from July 26-28 and was attended by close to a million people. One of the largest sand sculpting festivals in the world, it sees participation from leading sand sculptors from around the world. Pattnaik was the sole representative from India and Asia.
