Statement:

My art practice attempts to draw attention to the suffering and imminent extinction of cetaceans and other marine wildlife within a plastic-profit-driven society. More than four billion tons of non-biodegradable plastic is dumped in the oceans every year. The womb of Gaia, our ancient, empathic mother spits out toxins day by day, tide by tide…a cry for help.. I have been collecting marine debris from the Cornish coastlines for the past eleven years.

During my research into chemical compounds inherent in plastics, it became apparent that marine pollution is responsible for, not only the ingestion and entanglement, but also the leaching of dioxins causing diseases such as cancer, endocrine disruption, immune system failure and other debilitating, fatal illnesses to innocent, intelligent, sentient marine life. 

The oceans were the beginning of life on Earth and symbolize formlessness, the unfathomable chaos. It can also be seen as a symbol of stability, existing largely unchanged for centuries. The ocean was considered to be vast and infinite, a place where we can easily be lost and that represents the boundless span of life and the way we can become disorientated on our journey through life. Is this what most of society have become?

Joseph Beuys believed that if guilt involves a death wish, then empathy restores the wish for life. It involves the projection of our own life into the suffering of a dead victim, in recognition, no matter how overdue, of a common mutual bond and interrelatedness. He believed that the victimizers must put themselves in the place of the victim, suffer what the victim suffered and die as the victim died, not literally, but internally.

Do we deny ourselves and other species a future or do we recognize and accept responsibility and compassion?