Marine Mutation

The image is a small detail from Marine Mutation, which is a depiction of an underwater environment made almost entirely from plastic bags.

Plastic is invading our oceans in ever increasing quantities. Could nature ever be completely overtaken by the plastic?

This installation is a fantasy of how that plastic nightmare might look.

Marine Mutation

The work includes knitted 'yarn' cut from plastic bags. The swirling coils, looping shapes and knitted tubes make up the arch frame. They represent the surface currents leading to huge patches of plastic rubbish meandering in circular swathes across oceans.

The fish and marine life were stitched onto yet more plastic bags, laminated onto a fabric base for strength, and decorated with plastic beads. Also included are pieces of beachcombed rope and other detritus from the sea.

Marine Mutation

The ‘seabed’ base was made by laminating a variety of plastic bags onto an old, discarded canvas dodger.

The heat necessary for the lamination process caused wrinkles similar to ripples in sand, which look very effective. The plastic was also stitched to the canvas base after lamination, for extra strength.

Marine Mutation

Marine Mutation is a depiction of an imaginary sea life, transformed into a plastic fantasy by being almost completely constructed from used carrier bags.

The work started by my drawing a variety of fish and marine life and painting them decoratively. I used the paintings, together with my own photographs, to make a sketchbook of composite pictures. This one is of painted herrings together with some fishing nets. The sketchbook provided inspiration for the final work.

Marine Mutation

Plastic bags were cut into ‘yarn’ to knit the tubes which are coiled to represent the swirling currents moving vast swathes of plastic debris around in the oceans.

I also used some of the plastic ‘yarn’ to crochet shell shapes and spirals around the knitted tubes, to extend the marine idea of the work.