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White-chinned petrels, a bird just out of our sight and mind and yet at home just a hundred metres off the coast.

 

This bird is a sea wanderer and has been a constant companion of fishermen for years. However, as commercial fisheries scaled up, small problems became big problems and small numbers of bycatch have now reached the unimaginable.

 

My work, in collaboration with Kalinka Rexer-Huber addresses our fisheries impact on the oceans, using the petrel to represent an ever-growing problem as we compete for the basic resource of food.

 

The work is made from discarded and old fishing gear, each hook with a history and story, each one has had the experience of the ocean and has had the potential to catch not only these birds but many other species, targeted and not. All in the name of consumption.

 

The work is suspended in space in the form of a diving petrel placing the viewer in the position of our sea life. Our environment is infiltrated by these sharp objects, intruding on our space and bringing what is beneath the surface to us. We are forced to observe and think about what impacts our actions have upon the environment, and what we can do to raise awareness for conservation and protection of species that are heavily impacted by our practices. So I ask, Are You Hooked Yet?