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- Kathleen Darcy
Kathleen
Darcy
What Lies Beneath
Plastic is the most common element that is found in the ocean. It is harmful for the environment as it does not break easily and is often considered as food by marine birds and animals. Over 1,000,000 seabirds and marine mammals die each year from plastic ingestion.
Focusing her attention on the areas of Spanish Point and Quilty, Kathleen Darcy collected and photographed remnants of rope and fishing nets that had washed in from the sea. These objects had degraded from the weather, getting tangled and entwined with the natural seaweed. It was hard to distinguish these elements, to the point where they were almost unrecognizable from the surrounding growth, much to the detriment of the wild life.
As an artist, her work is influenced by how she visually responds to landscapes, found objects and the environment. As part of her artist practice she has concentrated on the photographing and displaying of these found items. She recorded aerial footage of Quilty, to gain a birds-eye perspective of the beach terrain. From this elevated view point, the beach looked relatively well kempt. But in reality the seaweed on the beach was blighted with plastics. Taking this in to consideration she uses her artwork to highlight this disruption.