2net0

Death-trap plastic nets transformed into art elicit stories and connections

Clifford Chance/UAL Sculpture Award 2023

Rubbish elevated to colourful and beautiful net sculptures draw people into their webs. The artist's underlying message of the planet's fragility and strength, and the depiction of a turbulent journey to net zero won her this award. It gave the artist the opportunity to create a site-specific work for a 8 metre wall that depicts the journey 2net0. The image below is a detail from this journey, showing a melting glacier. The other piece as you go up the escalator, emerges like a beautiful sunrise in the sterile glass and steel corporate setting. Look closely you may find a figure with outstretched arms or a tree with branches and leaves. It brings joy and hope.

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This installation depicts a challenging journey where the nets twist and turn through a difficult terrain. The many layers of nets have a multitude of stories - wildfires, melting glaciers, trapped creatures, pockets of conflict, and hidden hoops through which we will all need to find our way to reach the target - net zero.

While some plastic webs unravel showing wear and tear, the material is resilient and has been further reinforced with colourful yarn. Several hundreds pieces of up-cycled fruit nets have been joined together and shaped with wires. Beyond their life as useful packaging they had no value. and were potentially a threat to wildlife and the ecosystem.

Yet here the artist has elevated them to heights of beauty and thought-provoking narratives. They have acquired a greater value as a lively piece of sculpture with serious messages.