Lots of plastic can be found in our waterways and oceans, big and small pieces, if it’s not plastic packaging then it’s microplastics. Millions of tons of plastic end up in our oceans every year. This has a serious impact on aquatic life: turtles, dolphins and whales get hurt or trapped, and birds and other animals mistakenly see the plastic for food. But we don’t have to look that far. The canal in Brussels is also used by various animals, the cormorants being one of them. They can often be seen in and around the canal, using it as a source for food. They dive into the water and hunt for fish. While hunting, they can swallow all kinds of plastic waste, large pieces or microplastics.

The artwork depicts a cormorant drying its wings on the quay after a dive in the canal. The belly of the cormorant is a waste bin in which passers-by can throw their waste. The symbolism is strong, because of the pollution of our waterways, trash ends up in the stomachs of animals just as passers-by will throw it in Henry’s belly. This plastic can give the animals a very unpleasant life and eventually kill them. But it doesn’t stop there, the plastic ends up on our plates again through the food chain, at least for those who eat fish or seafood.

Henry is partly built with reuse material, which you can see when you look deep into his eyes, in reality you are looking at two skateboard wheels. The artist who brought Henry to life is LGH Henry (Instagram: lgh_artist), we did indeed name the artwork after the artist. He makes all his works of art from recycled material such as old wooden furniture and everything he can find. Henry lives in a small village in Wallonia where a small river flows through and where you can observe cormorants every day. The first time we called him he immediately replied that he already had a stuffed cormorant for a long time and wanted to do something with it, we had a match.