If you are looking for something magical to entertain and educate the kids these school holidays take a day trip to the Yarra Ranges Regional Museum in Lilydale and be spell bound by The Ersatz Fantasia Project.
In this project artist Rachael Hallinan has created a large-scale installation of recycled plastic toys, games and recreational products that might otherwise end up in landfill. The installation takes the form of an interactive fantasy forest that reflects the enviromental impact of our consumer choices.
The Ersatz Fantasia Project is a fun and engaging way of encouraging people to take notice of the overuse of plastic in their lives. It is a reminder to consider materials when purchasing gifts and toys, to recycle and repurpose and to consider using environmentally friendly alternatives to buying, such as borrowing from toy libraries.
Visitors are encouraged to play and interact with the toys, and for Emma it was like all her Christmases came at once.
The exhibition spreads over two floors – The Box Gallery is the main exhibition room which focuses on a tree, completely covered by a rainbow of toys and discarded plastics. Visitors are then invited into The Chambers upstairs in the gallery, to view ‘The Majestic Plastic Bag’; a mockumentary narrated by Jeremy Irons, tracking the ‘migration’ of a plastic bag from the grocery store to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, and participate in craft activities using upcycled materials.
The exhibition, funded through a Yarra Ranges Council community grant, opened on Saturday 28 March and will run until Sunday 24 May, 2015. Entry is free.
For more information on The Eratz Fantasia Project by Rachael Hallinan, click here.
