Biomorph

Biomorph is a sculptural installation of interconnected elements made from plastic materials and fibres, including fishing line, mesh nets, garden trellis, straws, pompoms, packing strap and communications cable. I manipulate these materials into organic shapes through the processes of stitching, knotting, weaving and heat-treating. Activated through numerous connective hooks and loops, I use chance and randomness, as well as the forces of tension and gravity, to create patterns of proliferation. Biomorph responds to the space that it occupies; clumping together and spreading out to create a permeable and enveloping structure of enmeshed complexity.

The misuse of plastics has increasingly become a topic of ecological concern, as vast accumulations of plastic waste are buried in landfill and swirl around in ocean currents to create floating islands or garbage patches. I treat my plastics as precious materials, devoting time and energy to exploring their lightness, translucence, colourings and malleability. Using plastics to imitate the irregular and complex shapes of living organisms, I reveal the enduring tensions between the organic and the synthetic; growth as both a regenerative and a destructive force. Biomorph reveals the transformative pliability of plastics, as well as questioning the way in which humans and animals live alongside this material in relationships that are increasingly fraught and dangerous.