Turning plastic waste into art with artist Liza Khorevali
Plastic is everywhere in our lives. It often ends up littering our landscapes and oceans, especially in Georgia where recycling is virtually non-existent. One artist, Liza Kkorevali, gathers some of this plastic waste and turns it into art.
Environmental issues and the prevalence of plastic inspired Liza to begin working with the material as an artistic medium.
“Working with plastic, I felt like I was contributing to raising awareness about this problem. I wanted to use it to speak up about something important to me: climate change and plastic pollution. ”
When Liza moved to Georgia from Russia, she met the team from Precious Plastics, who organised rubbish clean ups and recycling collections and turned plastic waste into useful items such as table tops.
“It all happened spontaneously, one thing after another - flying to Georgia, living 7 months in the village, moving to Tbilisi, meeting girls from Precious Plastic etc. I think I was in the right place, at the right time. And I truly believe that when you want something good for yourself and others - it just happens at some point, when you’re ready,” says Liza.
Nature is a home and source of inspiration for Liza: “A long time I lived in Moscow which is an insanely big city. All of the nature reserves are located quite far away, so I was separated from it for a while. When I finally moved to the village in Georgia, I could feel the difference - I became calmer, more grounded. This experience helped me to deal with my mental health and figure out next steps in my life.”
In Georgia, Liza has had many fond memories drinking tea as a reminder to slow down and connect to people.
“The Fondest and weirdest one was when I met my cousin here, in Georgia, for the first time in 10 years. We were walking at Mtatsminda, drinking tea, talking about life and family. It’s a magical experience to see how genes work and meet somebody so similar to you. He’s really into tea culture, and even has his own boxes for the tea ceremonies... And many more experiences with my beloved friends who are also into tea culture.”
Liza plans to continue to search for balance between living in nature and speaking up about environmental problems and also working with clay.
“I have big plans with plastic. The waste problem is huge in Georgia, there's almost no recycling system and education for the community which explains why the pollution problem is really serious, so I want to focus more on that.”
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I met Liza through a friend on a walk on Mtatsminda, a hill that rises above Tbilisi on a cold morning last January. I’ve been super impressed by her use of innovation and art to bring attention to the impact of plastic on our environments. Like Liza, I’m also maddened by plastic waste in our nature. We tried to make our packaging and company as low impact as possible. Our packaging is plastic free and eventually we want to encourage only re-usable, refillable packaging. Click below to try our tea.