Pretty Deadly

Salvaged ghost nets, plastic bottles, paint

Made from 'Ghost nets' which are fishing nets salvaged off the Hawaii coastline, plastic bottles, and spray paint, the body mantle 'Pretty Deadly' is a wearable sculpture and performance artwork. It is made from two different objects used repetitively hundreds of times. I wanted to create awareness for the plastics that are left in the oceans harming sea life and subsequently our whole planet. These plastics are made up of discarded or lost fishing nets and single use plastics, such as bottles, bags and straws and I wanted to create awareness by making the mantle 'heard' in the fashion of Nick Cave’s ‘soundsuits’ using these materials. As a Turkish native and former scuba instructor, I have long been an ocean advocate and so for this project and future sustainable sculpture projects, I sourced actual ghost nets collected in the Pacific Ocean by conservationists. I had to patiently detangle each line and weave them into a mantle using the double knot technique. Afterwards, I tied the painted plastic bottles and bottle cutouts all around and throughout the piece so that they looked like an ocean garbage patch and made a lot of sound. I really enjoyed working on something that is near to my heart and making time for it. Enacting what I envisioned was happening to the sea creatures made the project even more powerful and daunting.