Balancing Relations looks at the notional prospect of what is beyond our vision in the depths of our oceans.

Inspired by the volume of plastics in the oceans my imagination has been fuelled by the revelation of colonies of microorganisms growing on the gyres of plastic floating there. The idea of inorganic plastics supporting organic life has offered the framework to explore fictional speculations using waste material.

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Researching the journey of waste plastics in the ocean brought home the complexity of what is happening in this environment: physical breakdown, absorption of toxins, ingestion, leeching chemicals, bacterial and microbial growth, and transportation of invasive species.

 

We perceive plastic to be inanimate, but it is very ‘implicated’ in our lives (Bennett, 2009).

These intimate creations foreground the mark of the hand using textile sensibilities while exploring the potential to reuse waste plastics in a contemporary art setting.

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Balancing Relations is a personal response to encounters with waste plastic to build a sensory connection, explore its materiality, and respond instinctively on a visceral, aesthetic, and intellectual level. The drive is to inspire another way to relate by disrupting perceptions of waste. Exposing this material’s potential through subversive aesthetics questions possibilities on end of life issues.

 

High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) from used plastic milk bottles is used to create the Scaled pieces; plastics found at the beach are the materials used to create the Hybrid works; and used plastic shopping bags with stitch were used to create Mantle for this exhibition.

 

November 2020