“Lonely Whale” was created out of my passion to fight the use of single-use plastic straws as well as my love for the ocean and the Blue Whale, often referred to as the Lonely Whale or 52.

Although Blue Whales are endangered there is something special about this particular whale, 52. Blue Whales normally communicate at a frequency of 15-25 Hertz. 52 on the other hand communicates at 52 Hertz, making it impossible for other Blue Whales to understand him and to communicate with him. It is believed that this whale has spent its entire life in solitude. Calling out, never to be heard or communicated by any other whale, making this whale indeed the loneliest whale in the ocean.

I wanted to tell the story of 52 as well as that of Lonely Whale, a Not for Profit that is doing wonderful work to help our oceans. One of their first campaigns #stopsucking was aimed at getting people to stop using single-use plastic straws. Therefore, the entire wireframe of the whale is covered using single-use plastic straws that are fused together.

Through this piece I want people to become more aware of their single-use habits and what impact these habits have on our oceans.

The base of the sculpture is created using a reclaimed piece of wood that was collected in the UAE desert.

Title: “Lonely Whale”

Dimensions: 930mm x 600mm x 500mm

Medium: Mixed Medium (Wire Frame and Single-use plastic Straws)

About the author, Mariska

Hi and welcome! My name is Mariska. I am originally from South Africa, but now call the world my home. I am an artist, designer, environmentalist, podcast host and speaker.

I started the Mama Earth Talk podcast in 2018 to share some of the things that I learned about just how easy it can be to reduce your impact on the environment. This then quickly grew into a forum that showcases the amazing things that many people are doing to make the planet better, and further into a source of hope and inspiration for many. A few of the amazing guests include Zero Waste Queen, Bea Johnson, Claude Silver, Kathryn Kellogg and zero waste chef Max La Manna.

If you do not already I urge you to follow me and my journey on social media (@designbymariska), and to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot your own waste using the handy tips I post!