For my final FMP piece I have made a large scale plastic bag filled with water and colourful found objects, tied at the top with a long, found nautical rope. I collected all the objects from the Thames shore and the majority were plastic. I then made the bag in the workshops using high-frequency radio waves to seal and weld the PVC vinyl together with the objects inside.
At first you are drawn to the piece through the bright playful colours and water, which both often have positive associations, but when you get closer you realise that these objects are discarded/waste, and that it is about a serious issue. A glimpse into what our oceans/ rivers look like due to our plastic pollution and overconsumption. I made this piece on a large scale to reflect the amount of space that our waste takes up. I wanted to reference the shape of a goldfish bag, something that many are familiar with from their childhood, but what was once fish is now rubbish. Through bringing water into the exhibition space, I wanted to create a feeling of threat, fragility, risk and precariousness. This mass of water is in the wrong environment and shouldn’t be there, just as the plastic objects don’t belong in seas and rivers, both are in the wrong place. The rope is meant to provoke thoughts of fishing, through my research I discovered that alongside overfishing itself being a huge issue, discarded fishing gear is the leading cause of plastic pollution in oceans.
I collected and found the discarded materials, discovering things about the location in which I found them, and thinking about the objects place. Then I organised and categorised, laying them out to understand and become familiar with the materials. After I would then use and reuse these materials to make work, constructing then deconstructing, these objects have been used in multiple works, such as tangled in nets and suspended with fishing line as a sea of rubbish which led to the development of the final piece with the objects immersed in water.
