Tan Zi Xi – “MESSYMSXI” – Viv King. Level 3. BA Fine Art

Plastic Ocean ©Tan Zi Xi 2016 – Singapore Art Museum

Plastic Ocean ©Tan Zi Xi 2016 – Singapore Art Museum

Despite this installation being so shocking, it is also so beautifully laid out, particularly the way it is lit, the way the plastic and waste are suspended and the bright colours of the rubbish.

Tan Zi Xi or Messy Msxi as she is known seeks to put into perspective our tiny personal existence and the impact as individuals we have on the environment and climate change. By enlarging these negative effects she hopes to educate, inform and reinforce her empathy for our underwater sea creatures, not only fish that swim through this litter, but the other sea life as well.

Messy Msxi collected over 26,000 pieces of plastic waste, discarded in the ocean, cleaned, organised and suspended them from the ceiling in her exhibition, the later being ‘Plastic Ocean’ Sassoon Dock in the street art festival in Mumbai. A collaboration with artists and the local community at the city’s fishing port.

When Messy Msxi moved from Singapore to London to study, she found things more liberal, less restrictive and less orderly and felt informed in a very different way. This got her hooked into finding out more about the world. She started to watch documentaries on darker subjects and along with these and her fellow colleagues this contributed to her inspiration for her practice.

Her installations are visually moving, immersive, and extensively thought provoking, challenging climate change and the impact it has on our ecosystems. As humans we over consume with no conscience. (In broad terms). The impact of what we are all doing with the disruption to nature and our marine ecosystems.

I find the immersive work such a clever blend of beauty and urgency. Messy Msxi’s art is both emotionally impactful as well as educational, being visual and interactive, rather than filling us with scientific data, which for some can be hard work to digest. The debris she finds is physically incorporated within her work making it not only symbolic but real.

Her work has had quite an inspirational impact on me.

References: https://www.artshelp.com/singapore-based-artist-tan-zi-xi-brings-awareness-to-ocean-pollution-through-her-illustrations-and-one-of-a-kind-sculptures/

Accessed – 7th February 2026

https://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/Art-Events/Exhibitions/Imaginarium-2016

Accessed – 7th February 2026